Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to recent reports of the abduction of unaccompanied children from a Home Office residence in Hove, what training was provided to security staff contracted by her Department to manage the security of those children.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We take the safety and welfare of those in our care, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, extremely seriously.
Contracted security staff within UASC hotels complete comprehensive training.
The wellbeing of children is our number one priority and our accommodation providers are required to ensure accommodation is safe and in line with contractual requirements.
Home Office Safeguarding Hub works closely with accommodation providers to ensure early identification of vulnerabilities, where issues are not disclosed by customers, and onward referral to the statutory agencies of health, police, and social services.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to recent reports of the abduction of unaccompanied children from a Home Office residence in Hove, what urgent steps her Department is taking to ensure the (a) safety and (b) welfare of children who (i) are missing, (i) were missing but have been found and (c) are living at that residence.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The rise in dangerous small boats crossings means there are significant challenges on providing local authority care places for unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). Out of necessity and with the best interests of the child in mind, we have accommodated UASC on an emergency and temporary basis in hotels while placements with local authorities have been vigorously pursued. This work is led by dedicated team leaders and support workers who provide 24/7 supervision
We take our safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously. We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure UASC in hotels are as safe and supported as possible as we seek urgent placements with a local authority. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses. All children receive a welfare interview which includes questions designed to identify potential indicators of trafficking or safeguarding issues and subsequent safeguarding plans are put in place.
Records are kept and monitored of children leaving and returning to the hotel. Support workers will accompany children off site on activities and social excursions, or where specific vulnerabilities are identified. The Home Office has no power to hold children in hotels or any temporary accommodation if they wish to leave.
When a young person goes missing the ‘missing persons protocol’ is followed and led by our directly engaged social workers. Missing After Reasonable Steps (MARS) is a new protocol which enables children’s homes and supported accommodation placements to have more ownership over the missing episodes of children within their care.
We engage with the local police and work in conjunction with the Local Authorities (LA) children’s services to invoke a missing child multi agency strategy meeting chaired by children’s services.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lithium-ion battery fire incidents were recorded in 2019.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Data collected through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS) does not include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved lithium-ion batteries.
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. This data is published in a variety of publications, available here: Fire statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lithium-ion battery fire incidents were recorded in 2020.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Data collected through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS) does not include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved lithium-ion batteries.
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. This data is published in a variety of publications, available here: Fire statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lithium-ion battery fire incidents were recorded in 2018.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Data collected through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS) does not include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved lithium-ion batteries.
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. This data is published in a variety of publications, available here: Fire statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lithium-ion battery fire incidents were recorded in the UK in 2021.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Data collected through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS) does not include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved lithium-ion batteries.
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. This data is published in a variety of publications, available here: Fire statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by the Digital Application Processing development programme in HM Passport Office on 1 January 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The maximum number of people engaged in the development programme is constrained by the number of independent spaces within the technical architecture where change can be made in parallel. Industry leading development practices have been employed to maximise the efficiency and pace of change while minimising the risk to passport processing.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are engaged in working on the development programme of Digital Application Processing at HM Passport Office as of 20 July 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The maximum number of people engaged in the development programme is constrained by the number of independent spaces within the technical architecture where change can be made in parallel. Industry leading development practices have been employed to maximise the efficiency and pace of change while minimising the risk to passport processing.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) permanent, (b) fixed-term, (c) agency and (d) other staff were working in HM Passport Office on 1 April 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The table below shows the breakdown of workers at HM Passport Office on 30 March 2022.
Full-time equivalents April 2022 | |
Civil servants (Permanent) | 3205.99 |
Civil servants (Fixed-term Appointment) | 25.54 |
Agency Workers | 1141.52 |
Civil Servants Unpaid (Fixed-term Appointment, Loan & Permanent) | 51.72 |
Staffing numbers at Her Majesty's Passport Office has increased by over 1200 since April 2021. Its recruitment will continue to cover any attrition, to ensure the passport service remains fully resourced.
We are committed to ensuring public services are run as efficiently and effectively as possible. Given elevated demand will not continue indefinitely, it is appropriate to have flexible resources available. Therefore, while there has been some recruitment of civil servants, the use of agency workers is appropriate in this context.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool West Derby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by the Digital Application Processing development programme in HM Passport Office on 1 May 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The number of people engaged in developing the Digital Application Service as of 1 March 2022 was 68.