Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the compatibility of the Common Travel Area with Schengen Area membership.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK, along with the other members of the Common Travel Area - Ireland and the Crown Dependencies are not signatories to the Schengen agreement. There are no plans to change this position and all members are committed to maintaining the Common Travel Area arrangements.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Hong Kong BNO visas have been issued; and what data her Department holds on where holders choose to live in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data on the number of applications and grants of leave on the British National Overseas (BN(O)) route in the “How many people come to the UK each year (including visitors)?” topic and underlying datasets of the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’.
The latest data relates to 2021. These statistics include data on main applicants and dependants. Data for Q1 2022 will be published on 26 May 2022.
The Home Office does not hold information on where visa holders might choose to live in the UK as they are free to settle in any part of it.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to roll out the Ask for ANI scheme to more independent pharmacies in Scotland.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Ask for ANI Codeword Scheme celebrated it’s one-year anniversary earlier this year.
The voluntary scheme was rolled out to pharmacies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It has now been adopted by over 50% of pharmacies in the UK and over 100 official disclosures have been made.
We continue to work with partners across the UK, including pharmacy associations, to encourage more pharmacies to sign up to the scheme.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to offer support to Police Scotland during the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office are supporting Police Scotland in the planning and delivery of the event whilst respecting operational independence and the devolved nature of policing in Scotland, noting that Counter Terrorism policing policy remains reserved.
The Home Office and the National Police Co-ordination Centre (NPoCC) are working closely with Police Scotland around the resourcing for the event, as well as sharing knowledge and experience in relation to policing operations from other high profile major events.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Scottish Government on the Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Throughout the development of the Hong Kong BN(O) route, the Home Office has had regular discussions with counterparts across the UK government and in the Devolved Administrations. This includes the continued work being led by MHCLG to support the effective integration of BN(O) status holders and their family members arriving in the UK.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding has been provided to the Scottish Borders Council as part of the Syrian vulnerable person resettlement programme.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
All local authorities receive a 5-year tariff, per refugee resettled, to assist with costs incurred providing support to refugees they have welcomed through the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. In year 1 this totals £8,520 per refugee, with additional support for educational and medical needs. In years 2-5 local authorities receive £12,000 per refugee in total: tapering from £5,000 in year 2 to £3,700 in year 3, to £2,300k in year 4 and £1,000k in year 5.
Home Office Immigration Statistics on asylum and resettlement are published on a quarterly basis. This includes a detailed breakdown of the number of refugees resettled to each local authority.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with (a) Police Scotland and (b) the British Transport Police on county lines.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office and its operational partners work closely with both Police Scotland and the British Transport Police, both of whom have a key role in addressing county lines drug dealing. Regular dialogue takes place with the British Transport Police on county lines, and through our investment the British Transport Police has established a dedicated taskforce focusing on county lines operations. We are also funding the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) to co-ordinate the national law enforcement response to county lines and NCLCC regularly engage with Police Scotland. County lines was also discussed at the UK Drugs Ministerial in September, which was attended by HO and Scottish Government ministers and by Police Scotland among others.
This Government is determined to crack down on the county lines gangs who are exploiting our children and have a devastating impact on our communities. That is why, on 20 January the Government announced £40m dedicated investment to tackle drugs supply and county lines and surge our activity against these ruthless gangs. This will allow us to expand and build upon the successful results of our existing £25m county lines programme. In September 2020 NCLCC coordinated a county lines ‘week of intensification’ which included all forces, including Police Scotland. This resulted in over 1,000 arrests, drugs worth more than £1m seized and over 1,500 vulnerable individuals safeguarded.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from the Scottish Borders have applied to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Up until 30 June 2020 a total of 2,560 applications to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) had been received from applicants in the Scottish Borders local authority area.
Published information on EUSS applications by region and local authority to 30 June 2020, can be found in the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics’, local authority statistics tables, table EUSS_LA_01 (by the applicants nationality) and EUSS_LA_02 (by the applicants age), available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-quarterly-statistics-june-2020.
The latest published information shows 3.81 million (3,805,200) EUSS applications had been received up to 31 July 2020. The latest figures can be found on the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’ web page available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prepare for the return of British children trapped in north-east Syria.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
There may be British children in Internally Displaced Persons camps in Syria, who because of their age, are innocent victims of the conflict, however, the process of providing any assistance is extremely complex. If we become aware of British unaccompanied or orphaned children or if British children are able to seek consular assistance, then we will work with the local and UK authorities to facilitate their return if feasible.
Children returning from Syria are likely to have been exposed to the conflict and to have experienced trauma. In some circumstances they may also pose national security concerns that need to be carefully managed. A range of specialised support – some of which is funded directly by the Home Office – is offered to address concerns ranging from safeguarding to national security. Our support will be tailored to the needs of each individual child.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what effect funding 20,000 additional police officers will have on the Scottish Government's block grant.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Any increase in funding to the police forces of England and Wales would generate a ‘Barnett consequential’ uplift to the Block Grants to the Scottish Government. It would be a matter for the Scottish Government to determine how the additional resources would be allocated.