Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to expedite British surrogacy babies' passports who are born overseas in the context of enabling them to be vaccinated and cared for by their family in a timely way.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
His Majesty’s Passport Office provides significant support to the commissioning parents of surrogate babies. In all applications, especially where there are safety concerns, HM Passport Office works in conjunction with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to prioritise the processing of applications, and to issue Emergency Travel Documents for travel to a safe location once checks have been satisfactorily completed.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2022 to Question 37514 on Sexual Offences, whether (a) incentives and (b) penalties exist to encourage police departments to meet the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences target of reaching a charging decision within 30 days of beginning work on a sexual assault case.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
Protecting women and girls from violence and supporting victims and survivors of sexual violence is a key priority for this Government, and we expect cases to be dealt with sensitively and effectively. In June 2021, we published the End-to-End Rape Review Report and Action Plan which outlined a robust programme of work that aims to achieve a significant improvement in the way the criminal justice system responds to rape and sexual offences against adults.
As set out in the Rape Review, our ambition is to more than double the volume of adult rape cases reaching court over the Parliament, and we are using the Criminal Justice System (CJS) Delivery Dashboards to monitor progress towards this ambition.
There are no set targets for the police on timeliness. The published crime outcomes data shows that for all sexual offences the median days for a charge outcome to be assigned in 21/22 was 261 days, down from 268 days in 20/21. For all rape, the median days for a charge outcome to be assigned in 21/22 was 467 days compared to 465 days in 20/21.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of a scheme allowing refugees to temporarily stay with members of the public while awaiting permanent dispersal.
Answered by Kevin Foster
For those claiming asylum in the UK, we support and house those would otherwise be destitute whilst they await a decision on their claim.
We have no plans to house those who require our accommodation in this way with members of the public. Where someone is then subsequently granted refugee status, whilst in the United Kingdom, we would provide advice to them on onward accommodation and Local Authorities would provide housing advice and support.
For those who are granted refugee status abroad and then resettled in the UK, our Community Sponsorship Scheme enables civil society - including friends, charities and faith groups - to directly support families through both our UK Resettlement Scheme and now the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. Those brought to the UK under Community Sponsorship must have accommodation arranged in advance.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department makes an assessment of the (a) location and (b) cost of temporary accommodation when determining the order in which asylum seekers in that accommodation are given interviews.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office do not make an assessment of the location or cost of temporary accommodation when determining the order in which asylum seekers are given interviews; our usual tasking priorities are followed.
We are currently concentrating on deciding older claims, cases with acute vulnerability and those in receipt of the greatest level of support, including Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children. Additionally, we are prioritising cases where an individual has already received a decision, but a reconsideration is required.
Asylum Operations have also introduced a digital interviewing capability as part of the wider Home Office digital transformation programme. This enables us to maximise our capacity to conduct interviews in locations across the UK and progress cases in a more efficient and cost-effective way.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to protect the mental health of vulnerable asylum seekers.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Asylum seekers have full access to the NHS upon arrival in the UK.
All Home Office staff and contractors engaging with asylum seekers are trained to adopt a risk-based approach towards potential indications of vulnerability and to refer relevant cases onto the Safeguarding Hub, a dedicated resource assigned to identifying and safeguarding vulnerable asylum seekers.
The Safeguarding Hub works closely with the statutory agencies to signpost vulnerable customers for support with their health and social care needs.
The Government is planning to provide an additional £2.3 billion a year for mental health services by 2023/24, the largest increase in mental health funding in NHS history.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether a framework is in place to ensure that the police meet the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences target of reaching a charging decision within 30 days of beginning work on a sexual assault case.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
Protecting women and girls from violence and supporting victims and survivors of sexual violence is a key priority for this Government.
In June 2021, we published the End-to-End Rape Review Report and Action Plan. The action plan outlined a robust programme of work to achieve a significant improvement in the way the criminal justice system responds to rape and sexual offences against adults.
Our stated ambition in the Rape Review is to more than double the volume of adult rape cases reaching court over the Parliament, and we are using the Criminal Justice System (CJS) Delivery Dashboards to monitor progress towards this ambition.
On 16 June, we published our second six-monthly Rape Review Progress Update and third national CJS Delivery Dashboard. There are no set targets for the police on timeliness, but the Dashboard showed that in the year to December 2021 the median days from offence recording to the police charging an offender was 374, which was a reduction of 29 from 403 days in the years to June and September 2021.
The Rape Review Progress Update also outlined progress that has been made on key actions to improve the police’s response to adult rape in the year since the Rape Review, including:
Continuing to make progress towards the target of recruiting 20,000 additional police officers by March 2023. As of March 2022, the Home Office had supported the recruitment of 13,578 police officers, and in 2022/3 we have allocated £550m to achieve the target of 20,000 officers by March 2023.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 June 2022 to Question 9037 on Refugees: Hotels and Rented Housing, with reference to refugees being accommodated in hotels, whether her Department has set a target for the (a) number of asylum seekers to be hosted in hotels at any one time and (b) date for completing any necessary reduction to meet that target.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not have a target for the number of asylum seekers who should be housed in hotels.
Our aim is to eliminate the use of hotel accommodation as contingency accommodation and we are working with Local Authorities and our Commercial Partners to do so.
This includes moving to a system of full dispersal covering all local authority areas in England, Wales and Scotland, as opposed to the previous position where many, including 31 out of 32 local authority areas in Scotland, did not take part in the dispersal accommodation system.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her target date is for the completion of her full dispersal accommodation plan for asylum seekers.
Answered by Kevin Foster
On 13 April the Minister for Safe and Legal Migration announced the Home Office would move, with immediate effect, to a policy of full dispersal for the procurement asylum accommodation. We are working in partnership with local authorities to develop full dispersal plans down to a region/nation level. Whilst these plans are being developed procurement under this policy has commenced and any properties procured during the interim period will be accounted for in region/nations plans. This process is being informed by the informal consultation which was launched on 9 May and closes on 1 July.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to reduce the amount of time it takes to process asylum visa applications.
Answered by Kevin Foster
To help reduce the amount of time it takes to process asylum applications we are investing in a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives to speed up and simplify our processes, reduce the time people spend in the asylum system and decrease the number of people who are awaiting an interview or decision.
These initiatives include conducting shorter, more focused interviews or omitting interviews where it is appropriate to do so, streamlining decision templates and focusing on improving quality to ensure decisions are right first time. We have introduced specialist Decision Making Units, providing greater ownership and management of cohorts of asylum cases. Additionally, we have extensive ongoing recruitment and training plans in place, including career progression options to aid the retention of staff.
We are continuing to develop existing and new technology to help build on recent improvements such as digital interviewing and move away from a paper-based system. We are streamlining and digitising the case working process to enable more effective workflow, appointment booking and decision-making.