Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she received from (a) employers and (b) employers’ organisations prior to her Department's extension to the Offshore wind workers Immigration Rules concession 2017; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government is committed to making the UK a global leader in green energy and supporting the offshore windfarm sector is a key part of this commitment.
The information about the concession is published online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/offshore-wind-workers-immigration-rules-concession-2017.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department’s December 2020 update to the Offshore wind workers Immigration Rules concession 2017, how many non-EEA workers to date have been given leave to enter the UK under the terms of that concession.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not collect and store this data.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who were formerly Released Under Investigation were (a) NFA, (b) charged and (c) convicted in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government does not hold the information on how many people who were formerly Released Under Investigation were (a) no fixed action (NFA); (b) charged and (c) convicted.
Decisions on whether to use pre-charge bail or release suspects pending further enquiries are operational matters for individual police forces and will be assessed on a case by case basis.
The Government completed its public consultation on the pre-charge bail system, including release under investigation, on 29 May 2020. Analysis of the results from this consultation is ongoing and the Government response will be published later this year.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK Border Force staff were employed at each UK (a) port and (b) airport in (i) 2012 and (ii) May 2018.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to the Hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale on the 7th February 2017, UIN 60627 for staffing from 2012 to 2015. The latest published staffing figures for Border Force can be found in the Home Office Annual Report for 2016 - 17.
Refer to link below: FY2016/17 – Page 66
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2016-to-2017
Data for staffing levels in 2017/18 will be available when the Annual Report for 2017 – 18 is published
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will support calls by UK airlines to implement licensing airside at airports to tackle drunk and disruptive passengers.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government has publicly committed to issue a Call for Evidence on airside alcohol licensing.
The Call for Evidence will allow the Government to assess the true scale of the problem of drunk and disruptive airline passengers, the extent to which existing statutory powers and other measures are used to address the problem as well as the impact the extension of the Licensing Act 2003 to airside premises at international airports in England and Wales could have on reducing alcohol-related disruptive passenger behaviour. The Call for Evidence will be issued shortly.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has plans to provide additional resources to support border operations at UK airports during the summer period.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Border Force is taking a number of steps to ensure passengers are dealt with quickly, including through investment in technology and maximising available staff at the busiest times of the day.
Border Force is committed to providing an excellent service. During the first quarter of 2018, over 95% of passengers seeking entry to the UK at Heathrow were dealt with within the service level agreements.
We have also increased resources that are available to the busiest ports. For example, Border Force is putting in 200 additional staff to help process passengers at Heathrow this summer. They will remain at Heathrow throughout the busiest summer-period to help ensure Border Force delivers an excellent service while continuing to protect the security of the border.
The experience for British and other EEA nationals is further enhanced where those passengers travel using biometric passports as they can use our ePassport gates.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate the Government has made of the effect of delays at border controls on the UK economy.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The primary role of Border Force is to maintain the security of the UK border, this includes checking 100 per cent of scheduled arriving passengers, although every effort is made to minimise delays for passengers. We aim to get 95% of EEA nationals through the border within 25 minutes and 95% of non-EEA nationals within 45 minutes, and millions of customers each year get through the border in much shorter timeframes. In June 2018 over 99% of UK and EEA nationals, the vast majority of passengers, were processed within this timeframe at Heathrow.
We recognise how important tourism is, worth £66bn to the UK economy in 2016 and with record levels of visitors in 2017, as well as business travellers’ time which is why the government is now looking towards developing a longer term strategy which will better balance prosperity and security at the border, including increasing the use of automation where commensurate with security requirements. This is alongside the steps taken now to ensure passengers pass through the border as quickly as possible, including additional staff at the busiest ports for peak times and increased investment in technology. We are committed to ensuring that Border Force has the resources it needs to keep the UK safe and we will never compromise the security of our borders.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of (a) the effectiveness of ePassport gates in accelerating the border process at UK airports, and (b) potential steps to increase usage of those gates.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The ePassport gates allow Border Force to extract detailed Management Information to allow for regular monitoring of their performance. From this data it has been established that one bank of 10 ePassport gates requiring the support of 2-3 Border Force officers, can process 1200 passengers per hour. It would require 10 Border Force officers to process the same amount of passengers in that timeframe, using manual controls. Since their inception the ePassport gates have processed over 160 million passengers and are now processing approximately 50 million incoming passengers a year accounting for >50% of aviation passenger arrivals per year
Border Force continually looks to increase passenger throughput at the ePassport gates, working with Port Operators to improve queuing, hosting and way finding. Among the initiatives already in place to increase usage has been; the expansion of the Registered Traveller Service , now available to 40 countries and the introduction of the 12-17 scheme to allow accompanied children aged 12-17 to use the ePassport gates.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of passengers have waited longer than the Border Force service standard target time at UK (a) ports and (b) airports in each year since 2010.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Border Force service standards are that 95% of British and other European Economic Area (EEA) passengers, from the point they join an immigration queue, are seen by an officer within 25 minutes. For non-EEA passengers, the service standard is that 95% of passengers are seen by an officer within 45 minutes.
We do not publish data on performance at individual ports. Published data on the clearance of passengers at the border from 2014 to present day can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=home-office&publication_type=transparency-data
Data from 2010 to 2013 can be found at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130326215821/http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/corporate-publications/business-plan/business-plan-2012-15-data/borders-and-immigration-data?view=Html
Data relating to Border Force activity at Heathrow is published on the Heathrow Airport website at https://www.heathrow.com/company/company-news-and-information/performance/airport-operations/border-force
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate he has made of the number of passengers cleared within Border Force service standards at UK (a) ports and (b) airports in each year since 2010.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Border Force service standards are that 95% of British and other European Economic Area (EEA) passengers, from the point they join an immigration queue, are seen by an officer within 25 minutes. For non-EEA passengers, the service standard is that 95% of passengers are seen by an officer within 45 minutes.
We do not publish data on performance at individual ports. Published data on the clearance of passengers at the border from 2014 to present day can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=home-office&publication_type=transparency-data
Data from 2010 to 2013 can be found at http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130326215821/http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/corporate-publications/business-plan/business-plan-2012-15-data/borders-and-immigration-data?view=Html
Data relating to Border Force activity at Heathrow is published on the Heathrow Airport website at https://www.heathrow.com/company/company-news-and-information/performance/airport-operations/border-force