Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will hold discussions with the Migration Advisory Committee on the potential merits of establishing a bespoke immigration route for Scotland.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has no plans to devolve immigration policy or introduce a Scottish visa scheme. We are focussed on having an immigration system that works in the interests of the whole of the United Kingdom.
The Government has not tasked the MAC to look at the issue of Scottish visas and have no plans to do so.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
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 establishing a bespoke immigration route for Scotland.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has no plans to devolve immigration policy or introduce a Scottish visa scheme. We are focussed on having an immigration system that works in the interests of the whole of the United Kingdom.
The Government has not tasked the MAC to look at the issue of Scottish visas and have no plans to do so.
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 Baroness Maclean of Redditch
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.