Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, further to her oral Statement on 19 December 2022, on Migration and Economic Development, Official Report, whether her Department's policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda applies to (a) a family group arriving in the UK to seek asylum and (b) individuals arriving in the UK to seek asylum who have family members already in the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
With the exception of unaccompanied children, any individual who has arrived in the UK since 1 January 2022 by unnecessary and dangerous means from safe countries may be considered for relocation to Rwanda.
Families with children are potentially eligible for relocation; however the initial process will focus on adults. A further assessment of Rwanda’s capacity to accommodate children will be undertaken before this occurs. This is set out in our published Equality Impact Assessment: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migration-and-economic-development-partnership-with-rwanda.
For those with family links in the UK who want to be considered for entry to the UK, they should seek to do so via legal and safe routes.
Everyone considered for relocation will be screened and have access to legal advice. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis, and nobody will be removed if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) refugees and (b) asylum seekers from Afghanistan are currently living in hotels.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Through Operation Warm Welcome, Afghans resettling in the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will be supported in accessing accommodation alongside the vital health, education, and support into employment they need, to fully integrate into society.
As stated in the recently published, 'Afghan Resettlement: Operational Data' factsheet, at 12 August 2022, the UK:
Officials are working at pace to assure information relating to the individuals resettling in the UK under our bespoke schemes for Afghans on case working systems. Once this work concludes, the Home Office will include Afghan resettlement statistics in its quarterly Immigration Statistics publications.
Until then the factsheet will be updated every quarter – with the next iteration scheduled for publication on 24 November 2022.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of (a) British citizens and (b) accompanying family members who have travelled to the UK directly from Kabul since 1 September 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Given the situation in Afghanistan at this time there is no directly travel link between Kabul and the UK.
Any travel to the UK from Afghanistan will involve making a journey to a neighbouring country from which direct travel links to the UK operate.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of applications for British passports that have been (a) replacements for existing passports and (b) applications for first time passports over the last 12 months.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Applications for a first passport typically represent 10-15% of the passport applications processed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office.
Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport from the UK. This includes all application types, including first time applications. Across the first 6 months of 2022 HMPO processed 97.7% of UK standard applications within 10 weeks.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) civil injunctions, (b) criminal behaviour orders, (c) dispersal orders, (d) community protection notices and (e) orders for recovery of possession of dwelling houses were issued for anti-social behaviour in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides a range of flexible tools and powers to local agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour. Local areas decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances.
The Home Office does not collect information on civil injunctions, criminal behaviour orders, dispersal orders, community protection notices and orders for recovery of possession of dwelling houses, but this information will be held by individual police forces.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of applications for British passports have been (a) replacements for existing passports and (b) applications for first time passports in the last 12 months.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Applications for a first passport typically represent 10-15% of the passport applications processed by Her Majesty’s Passport Office.
Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport from the UK. This includes all application types, including first time applications. Between March and May 2022 approximately 98.5% of UK applications processed were completed within ten weeks.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 26 April 2022 to Question 157275 on Noise: Nuisance, which specific powers that are available to the police in Scotland to deal with noise complaints she plans to introduce in England and Wales.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The relevant Scottish legislation is Section 54 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to her Answer of 28 March 2022 to Question 145813, on Noise: Nuisance, and with reference to page 233 of the Government's white paper on Levelling Up in the United Kingdom, when she plans to ensure that police in England and Wales have the same powers to deal with noise complaints as are already available in Scotland.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB), including noise nuisance. We know the serious impact that persistent noise nuisance can have on both individuals and communities.
We have provided the police, local authorities, and other local agencies with a range of tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB and noise nuisance through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
Home Office statutory guidance was updated in January 2021. It supports local areas and police to make effective use of the anti-social behaviour powers to tackle ASB and noise nuisance. The guidance highlights the importance of multi-agency approaches.
The Levelling Up White Paper commits the UK Government to ensuring that police in England and Wales have the same powers to deal with noise complaints as are already available in Scotland. This will be done when Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the average length of time it takes to fill in an online Visa application form for a Ukrainian national wishing to come to the UK; and how many fully completed online Visa application forms have been received as of 29 March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not capture the average length of time it takes to fill in an online visa application for Ukrainian nationals. To capture these numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Information on the number of completed visa applications received under the Ukraine Family Scheme can be found in our oublished data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Family Scheme: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make a duty of candour a legal requirement for all police officers.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government takes police integrity and accountability extremely seriously. In February 2020, we introduced a statutory duty of cooperation for serving police officers as part of wider integrity reforms, making it clear that officers have a responsibility to cooperate with investigations, inquiries and formal proceedings when acting as a witness. A failure to cooperate with this duty is a breach of the statutory standards of professional behaviour, by which all officers must abide, and could therefore result in disciplinary sanction.
The Home Office will continue to assess the impact of this existing duty on police co-operation with inquiries and investigations, and the Home Secretary will set out her conclusions on a specific duty of candour for the police later this year in response to the reports of Bishop James Jones on the experiences of Hillsborough families’, and of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel.