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Written Question
Asylum: Wansbeck
Wednesday 10th January 2024

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many properties are being used to house asylum seekers in Wansbeck as of 19 December 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority, although not broken down into hotels or other accommodation can be found in the attached link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support.


Written Question
Asylum: Wansbeck
Wednesday 10th January 2024

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are housed in Wansbeck as of 19 December 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority, although not broken down into hotels or other accommodation can be found in the attached link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support.


Written Question
Asylum: Applications
Friday 16th June 2023

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) prioritise applications for asylum and (b) reduce waiting times for those applications.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

To accelerate decision making we are streamlining and modernising the end-to-end process, with improved guidance, enhancing use of digital technology, and introducing more efficient ways to handling claims.

We have already doubled our decision makers over the last 2 years, and we are continuing to recruit more. This will take our expected number of decision makers to 1,800 by this summer and 2,500 by September 2023.

We are making good progress and, as of the end of May 2023 (based on provisional data), the legacy backlog has reduced by over 17,000 cases since the end of November 2022.


Written Question
Police Deaths on Duty
Tuesday 21st June 2022

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will take steps to improve public recognition of the sacrifice made by police officers killed in service.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

It is important that we recognise the vital role the police play in society. This is never more true than when officers and staff make the ultimate sacrifice in order to help keep us safe. That is why the Government supported the creation of the National Police Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum and enshrined the Police Covenant in law.

All UK honours and medals are in the personal gift of HM The Queen under the Royal prerogative. The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medal (HD Committee) gives advice to The Queen on honours matters, including new forms of official national recognition.

The Honours and Appointments Secretariat in the Cabinet Office supports the Committee and will consider the options for recognition.


Written Question
Police Deaths on Duty
Tuesday 21st June 2022

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of the introduction of a posthumous Elizabeth medal to recognise police officers who lose their lives on the front line of policing.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

It is important that we recognise the vital role the police play in society. This is never more true than when officers and staff make the ultimate sacrifice in order to help keep us safe. That is why the Government supported the creation of the National Police Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum and enshrined the Police Covenant in law.

All UK honours and medals are in the personal gift of HM The Queen under the Royal prerogative. The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medal (HD Committee) gives advice to The Queen on honours matters, including new forms of official national recognition.

The Honours and Appointments Secretariat in the Cabinet Office supports the Committee and will consider the options for recognition.


Written Question
Asylum: Standards
Friday 19th November 2021

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle delays to (a) interviews and (b) asylum decisions for asylum seekers processed by her Department.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Home Office is pursuing a wide range of programmes which will transform our systems and processes alongside a number of business improvement initiatives to speed up decision making, reduce the time people spend in the system and reduce the numbers who are awaiting an interview where required or a decision.

Additionally to transformation, in response to the raising number of asylum claims and delays, we are working to increase decision makers as well as providing improved training and career progression opportunities to aid retention of staff. This investment in our people will speed up processing times and increase the throughput of asylum decisions.


Written Question
Immigration: EU Nationals
Wednesday 17th November 2021

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle delays to applications for the EU Settlement Scheme.

Answered by Kevin Foster

Our aim is to process all applications to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) as quickly as possible.

We currently have 1,500 UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) European Casework staff in post. We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system, and we actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand.

Each individual case is considered on its own facts, which means some cases will inevitably take longer than others to conclude. Cases may take longer dependent if, for example, the applicant is facing an impending prosecution or has a criminal record.

The following link lists the expected processing times for EU Settlement Scheme applications, based upon current performance:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-application-processing-times/eu-settlement-scheme-pilot-current-expected-processing-times-for-applications

The rights of those EU citizens and their family members who were lawfully resident at the end of the transition period and who, from 1 July 2021, have a pending application under the EUSS made by the deadline, or an appeal against the refusal of an application submitted by then, will be protected until their application is finally determined.


Written Question
Radicalism
Monday 27th July 2020

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the increase in right-wing extremism.

Answered by James Brokenshire

We take the threat from right wing extremism and terrorism very seriously. There are regular discussions between departments on how we respond to that threat.


Written Question
Immigrants: Health Services
Friday 24th July 2020

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national NHS and social care workers have (a) paid and (b) been refunded the NHS surcharge since 21 May 2020.

Answered by Kevin Foster

This information is not readily available nor held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost due to the fact the IHS is payable across multiple application routes. For example, where the customer is on a visa with a general right to work and takes up employment, we do not have a record who the employer is. Since the Prime Minister’s announcement, we have been working at pace to identify and issue refunds to those customers who are eligible and hold Tier 2 (General) visas.


Written Question
Retail Trade: Crimes of Violence
Friday 24th July 2020

Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what date she plans to publish the call for evidence on violence and abuse toward shop staff; and what plans she has to ensure that shop staff are protected against violence and abuse.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The Government carried out a Call for Evidence on violence and abuse toward shop staff to better understand the scale of the issue and the measures which may help prevent these crimes. We published the Government response to these findings on 7 July, setting out the steps we will be taking to help drive down these crimes:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/violence-and-abuse-toward-shop-staff-call-for-evidence