Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many buildings have waking watches in the UK.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the FSO), the Responsible Person for each particular building is required to ensure appropriate fire safety measures are in place within their building, as informed by a fire risk assessment.
The Government and the NFCC make available guidance to support those responsible in complying with the FSO and ensuring their premises remain safe for continued use. The NFCC has recently revised its Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance which reflects best practice and can be located at https://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/Simultaneous-evacuation-guidance.
This guidance encourages greater use of more cost-effective measures such as alarm systems to replace or reduce dependency on waking watch wherever possible.
Local fire and rescue authorities and other enforcers of the FSO can take action where the fire safety measures fall short of compliance.
Government does not collect data on the number of buildings where waking watch forms part of a building's fire safety strategy.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the date on which waking watches will no longer be required with the exception of those considered essential.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the FSO), the Responsible Person for each particular building is required to ensure appropriate fire safety measures are in place within their building, as informed by a fire risk assessment.
The Government and the NFCC make available guidance to support those responsible in complying with the FSO and ensuring their premises remain safe for continued use. The NFCC has recently revised its Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance which reflects best practice and can be located at https://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/Simultaneous-evacuation-guidance.
This guidance encourages greater use of more cost-effective measures such as alarm systems to replace or reduce dependency on waking watch wherever possible.
Local fire and rescue authorities and other enforcers of the FSO can take action where the fire safety measures fall short of compliance.
Government does not collect data on the number of buildings where waking watch forms part of a building's fire safety strategy.
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 Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government's oral contribution of 21 July 2021 in response to the question from the hon. Member for Leeds Central, if she will publish the exceptional circumstances in which waking watches will still be needed in future.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (the FSO), the Responsible Person for each particular building is required to ensure appropriate fire safety measures are in place within their building, as informed by a fire risk assessment.
The Government and the NFCC make available guidance to support those responsible in complying with the FSO and ensuring their premises remain safe for continued use. The NFCC has recently revised its Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance which reflects best practice and can be located at https://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/Simultaneous-evacuation-guidance.
This guidance encourages greater use of more cost-effective measures such as alarm systems to replace or reduce dependency on waking watch wherever possible.
Local fire and rescue authorities and other enforcers of the FSO can take action where the fire safety measures fall short of compliance.
Government does not collect data on the number of buildings where waking watch forms part of a building's fire safety strategy.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas have been granted to overseas researchers under the Global Talent Visa in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021 to date, broken down by nationality.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on visas granted under the Global Talent scheme is routinely published as part of the quarterly Immigration statistics.
The current data is available and can be found via the link below on tab Vis_D02.
entry-clearance-visa-outcomes-datasets-mar-2021.xlsx
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the requirement that EU visitors must have a passport rather than an ID card on the number of (a) EU tourists and (b) EU school parties coming to the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
EEA identity cards are among the least secure documents seen at the UK border and are, as a rule, not as secure as corresponding national passports. They continue to dominate detection figures for document abuse at the border.
The Government is committed to strengthening the security of our border, so will phase out the use of EU, other EEA and Swiss national identity cards as a valid travel document for entry to the UK from 1 October 2021.
We do not accept identity cards as a travel document from any other nationalities. We expect people who visit the UK from outside the EU (including the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to hold a passport and we will now expect those visiting from EU countries to do the same. Using a passport also means EU nationals making a short visit can also use e-gates where available for a quicker and easier arrival experience.
We have provided almost a year’s notice for this change to allow people to plan ahead and obtain a passport, if they need to, before they travel.
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 work with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to provide a 12 month extension to the Frontier Worker Permit scheme to allow the UK glass industry to continue to have access to critical overseas technical glass workers for the rebuilding and maintenance of glass furnaces, pending a longer term solution on that matter.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Citizens’ Rights Agreements protect those EEA or Swiss citizens who were frontier workers in the UK by the end of the transition period at 11pm on 31 December 2020 and who continue to be so.
The UK’s frontier worker permit scheme, which has been open to applications since 10 December 2020, allows those protected frontier workers to obtain a permit, free of charge, as evidence of their right to continue entering the UK as a frontier worker after 30 June 2021.
There is no deadline by which protected frontier workers must apply for a permit, though it is mandatory for non-Irish frontier workers to hold a frontier worker permit to enter the UK for work from 1 July 2021.
Where an overseas worker is not protected by the Citizens’ Rights Agreements, the new points-based immigration system provides routes for skilled workers and specialist services suppliers which can be utilised by industries such as the glass sector. Such work visas are typically issued within three weeks, making the UK system one of the fastest visa services in the world.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the availability of specialist refractory brick layers in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The job of a refractory engineer, under Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code 5312 (bricklayers and masons) on the eligible occupations list, meets the RQF3 skills threshold for the Skilled Worker route so it is eligible to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa, subject to the other criteria under the Route being met.
There is no minimum length of sponsorship and those sponsored for less than 6 months do not need to pay the Immigration Skills Charge or the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Queries about the availability of labour in the UK Labour Market and recruitment issues for businesses should be directed to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that UK glass manufacturers are able to access specialist refractory brick layers from outside the UK after 1 July 2021 to work on short-term maintenance and furnace re-build projects.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The job of a refractory engineer, under Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code 5312 (bricklayers and masons) on the eligible occupations list, meets the RQF3 skills threshold for the Skilled Worker route so it is eligible to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa, subject to the other criteria under the Route being met.
There is no minimum length of sponsorship and those sponsored for less than 6 months do not need to pay the Immigration Skills Charge or the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Queries about the availability of labour in the UK Labour Market and recruitment issues for businesses should be directed to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to introduce a fee waiver scheme for children born in the UK who are applying to register their British citizenship in response to the Court of Appeal judgment of 18 February 2021 in R on the application of Project for the Registration of Children as British Citizens & O v Secretary of State for the Home Department.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office has acknowledged the Court of Appeal’s judgment and has committed to reviewing the child citizenship registration fee in line with its duties under Section 55.
A Supreme Court hearing on Child Registration fees also took place on 23rd and 24th June. We await the final judgment and the ongoing section 55 review before publishing results.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been (a) arrested for possession of a machete and (b) injured or killed by a machete in England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested is not held centrally.