Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has revised her Department's targets for the processing of immigration cases during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office closely monitors the processing of immigration cases and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) has not amended its service standards due to Covid-19. UKVI continue to process applications as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crimes.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Hate crime of any kind is completely unacceptable. In October 2018 the Government refreshed the Action Against Hate to ensure that it is still fit for purpose to tackle hate crime including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic abuse.
The Action Plan includes a number of commitments that are addressing all forms of hate crime, including a review of hate crime legislation by the Law Commission which commenced earlier this year, a public awareness campaign which has run twice, and the Online Harms White Paper consultation.
There are also a number of specific commitments addressing homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime, which have been informed by the Government’s 2018 LGBT Action Plan. These include: the Crown Prosecution Service working with partners to improve the recording and monitoring of equalities data for LGBT victims of hate crime and reviewing and refreshing its LGBT Hate Crime Schools Pack; further Government Equalities Office funding for anti-bullying interventions in schools from March 2019 to March 2020; support from the Home Office to the police to improve training in responding to victims; multiple Home Office funded projects aimed at tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime; and continued engagement with LBGT stakeholders.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to reduce the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on labour shortages.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Leaving the EU with a deal remains the Government’s top priority. This has not changed. However, a responsible government must plan for every eventuality, including a no deal scenario.
As laid out in the policy paper ‘Immigration from 31 October 2019, if there is no deal’ published on the 28 January 2019, if the UK leaves the EU without a deal there will be a transition period, once free movement has ended and before the UK’s new skills-based immigration system begins on 1 January 2021.
Arrangements for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens arriving after free movement ends, coming to visit, work or study, for the duration of less than three months, will not look any different.
To stay longer than three months during the transition period, newly arrived EU citizens will need to apply for European Temporary Leave to Remain, which lasts for a further 36 months. Those who want to stay in the UK beyond the granted 36 months will need to apply and qualify under the new skills-based immigration system, which will start to come into effect, deal or no deal, from 2021.
The future system will focus on skills and not nationality, welcoming talented and hardworking individuals who will support the UK’s dynamic economy, en-abling business and employers to continue to compete on the world stage.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people deported in the last 12 months (a) had previously been a student in the UK, (b) were in the UK on a work visas and (c) were known to the Government.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The latest published statistics on returns can be found on-line at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-december-2018
Deportations are a subset of enforced returns. They may occur either following a criminal conviction, or when it is judged that a person’s removal from the UK is conducive to the public good. Information on those deported is not separately available. Published statistics refer to enforced returns, which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers who have declined to leave voluntarily. Most illegal immigrants are removed from the UK under administrative or illegal entry powers and not deported.
The Home Office does not hold the information requested centrally. Providing the information requested would require a trawl through Immigration databases, which could only be done at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many family settlement visas which were initially turned down due to the financial threshold criteria were subsequently turned down on reapplication for a different reason.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
All UK visa applications are considered on their individual merits and in line with UK immigration rules and guidance.
The latest data on refused family visas can be found in Table vi_01_q (visas tables volume 1) in the Immigration Statistics, year ending December 2018 release with the data tables available at:
However, information on the reasons for refusals are not published.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much his Department has spent on tackling knife crime in each year since 2010.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government does not keep disaggregated records of funding specifically dedicated to tackling knife crime and it is not possible to differentiate out funding on knife crime from funding allocated to police forces.
The Government’s Serious Violence Strategy, published in April 2018, set out a very significant programme of work with an ambitious programme including the following:
• An Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million
• £1.5 million for the anti-knife crime Community Fund
• £3.6 million we have provided for the establishment of the new
National County Lines Coordination Centre
• £1.4 million to support a new national police capability to tackle gang
related activity on social media
• Support to the #knifefree national knife crime media campaign
• The Offensive Weapons Bill currently passing through Parliament
In addition, we are allocating £200 million to a Youth Endowment Fund over the next 10 years, supporting police forces to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre, are soon to launch a consultation on anew legal duty to underpin a ‘public health’ approach to tackling serious violence, and have announced an Independent Review of Drug Misuse, to be conducted by Dame Carol Black.
On 13 March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Spring Statement that there will be £100 million additional funding in 2019/20 to tackle serious violence, including £80m of new funding from the Treasury. The majority of the investment will largely go towards supporting police forces, especially where violent crime is impacting the most. The funding will also support multi-agency Violence Reduction Units in violent crime hotspot areas, and elsewhere. We will prioritise investment in targeted police capacity to tackle serious violence and support for Violence Reduction Units in our Spending Review discussions.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when EU citizens living in the UK who have paid the £65 settled status fee will receive their refund.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
As the Prime Minister announced on 21 January, there will be no fee for applications under the EU Settlement Scheme when we roll out the scheme in full by 30 March. Anyone who has applied during the pilot phase, or who does so, will have their fee reimbursed. The Home Office will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what comparative assessment he has made of the the average waiting time for visa applicants in (a) the last six months and (b) 2010.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Information for the latest quarter available is published online.
Data on entry clearance visa processing times, including the percentage and number of visas that are processed within service standards, is published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-august-2018
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the reasons are for the (a) £1.37 per minute charge for the public helpline and (b) £5.38 charge for email correspondence.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
UK Visas and Immigration in–country contact centres provide information about the Immigration Rules and the Points Based System requirements via a number of published customer enquiry line numbers. In 2014, in line with Cabinet Office guidance, UKVI changed all 0845 and 0870 prefix helpline numbers to lower call tariff rate 0300 prefix numbers. UKVI do not generate any income from these non-geographic numbers enquiry lines.
For overseas customers, UK Visas and Immigration have a chargeable call rates of £1.37 per minute and a £5.48 email charge which includes the initial e-mail enquiry plus any follow-up e-mails to and from the contact centre relating to the same enquiry.
The international charge (£5.48 per email enquiry) was introduced on 1st June 2017 as part of the UKVI Contact Centre operations contract awarded to SITEL UK Ltd
These charges are levied to fund the commercial contract as the UK government believes it is right that those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting the costs of the immigration system. Those who use the services from outside the UK are predominantly prospective customers and in many cases no application will be made and no application fee collected.
Our web site www.gov.uk is the main source of information and advice and is free of charge.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people with Parkinson's disease who were held in custody by police forces in 2017.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The arrest and detention of all individuals suspected of committing an offence is an operational matter for the chief officer of each force area. However, all detainees must be treated appropriately and in accordance with Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Codes of Practice C&H (detention and detention in terrorism cases, respectively).
In particular, section 9 of PACE Code C sets out detailed requirements concerning health care of all detainees. Amongst other things, the Code requires the custody officer to ensure that detainees receive appropriate clinical attention as soon as reasonably practicable if, for example, the person appears to be suffering from physical illness, or appears to need clinical attention. This applies even if the detainee makes no request for clinical attention and whether or not they have already received clinical attention elsewhere. If the need for attention appears urgent, the nearest available healthcare professional or an ambulance must be called immediately.
The Government does not hold information on the number of individuals with a Parkinson’s diagnosis that have been detained in police custody.