Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether people accepted under the proposed bespoke immigration route for British Nationals (Overseas) passport holders from Hong Kong will be eligible to apply for integration loans.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Integration loans are available for recognised refugees in the UK. Further details on eligibility can be found in the refugee integration loan guidance section on gov.uk.
Further details of the new immigration route for British Nationals (Overseas) from Hong Kong will be released in due course.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Hong Kong have sought asylum in the UK from 21 May 2020 to 8 July 2020; and how many of those applications for asylum have been granted.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
Data on the number of asylum applications and the initial decision on such applications are published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D02 of the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets.
Data covering April to June 2020 will be published as part of the August release of Immigration Statistics.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether those individuals accepted under the proposed bespoke immigration route for British Nationals (Overseas) passport holders from Hong Kong will be required to pay the UK immigration healthcare surcharge.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It is right for those coming into the UK to contribute to the NHS for the brilliant healthcare they receive. Income from the surcharge goes directly into supporting NHS services.
Further details of the new immigration route for British Nationals (Overseas) will be released in due course.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recourse to public funds she plans to apply to people accepted under the proposed bespoke immigration route for British Nationals (Overseas) passport holders from Hong Kong.
Answered by Kevin Foster
As announced by the Foreign Secretary on 1st July, a new bespoke immigration route will allow BN(O)s to apply to come to the UK without the current 6 month limit, granting them 5 years limited leave to remain, with the ability to live and work in the UK, after which they may apply for settled status and a year later citizenship. This is a bespoke set of arrangements, developed for the unique circumstances we face and in light of our historic commitment to the people of Hong Kong.
The new route will be implemented in the coming months, with further details to be announced in due course on the simple, streamlined application process which will have no quota on numbers.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2020 to Question 53418 on British National (Overseas): Visas, whether the arrangements to extend visa rights for British National (Overseas) passport holders will also apply to the dependants of those passport holders.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The UK will continue to defend the rights & freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.
Should China push ahead and impose national security legislation on Hong Kong then we will provide a generous offer to BN(O)s of a bespoke immigration route providing unrestricted access to work and study with a pathway to apply for citizenship.
We are working closely with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and domestic departments on the offer to British Nationals (Overseas) and will set out more detail in due course.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to extend visa rights for (a) British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong and (b) the dependants of British National (Overseas) passport holders.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Foreign Secretary has announced that if China follows through with its proposed legislation, we will put in place new arrangements to allow BN(O)s to come to the UK without the current six-month limit, enabling them to live and apply to study and work for extendable periods of 12 months, thereby also providing a pathway to citizenship.
Further details will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of the 18 May 2020 to Question 46045, if she will ensure that statistics on how many passenger arrivals to the UK there were by (a) air, (b) sea and (c) rail on each day between 1 January and 11 May 2020 are included in the (i) next quarterly Immigration Statistics due for publication on 21 May and (ii) statistical release titled Statistics relating to Covid-19 and the immigration system, May 2020, due for publication on 28 May.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Immigration Statistics publication on the 21 May included data on total passenger arrivals, up to the end of March 2020. In addition, on 28 May, the Home Office published an ad hoc statistical release ‘Statistics relating to Covid-19 and the immigration system, May 2020’, which provided further information on the number of arrivals to the UK up to the end of April 2020.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passenger arrivals to the UK there were by (a) air, (b) sea and (c) rail on each day between 1 January and 11 May 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is due to publish the next quarterly Immigration Statistics on 21 May. In addition, an ad hoc statistical release ‘Statistics relating to Covid-19 and the immigration system, May 2020’ will be published on the 28 May.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of allowing police widows and widowers to retain their widows' pension upon remarriage, co-habitation or civil partnership irrespective of the circumstances of the death of their spouses.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Survivors of officers who were members of the 2006 and 2015 police pension schemes are, since 2006 and irrespective of the circumstances of the death of the officer, paid survivor pensions for life.
On 18 January 2016, the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 were amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers in England and Wales who have died on duty and who qualified for a survivor pension after 1 April 2015 to continue to receive their survivors’ benefits for life. Successive governments have been clear that we have a general presumption against making retrospective changes to public service pension schemes. However, the Government believes the arguments for making a limited exception for the widows of police officers who died on duty are sufficiently compelling in this case.
Asked by: Lisa Nandy (Labour - Wigan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK citizens have had their citizenship revoked by the Government since 2010.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The British Nationality Act 1981 provides the Secretary of State with powers to deprive a person of citizenship status. Section 40(2) allows the Secretary of State to deprive any person of British citizenship, should they deem it conducive to the public good to do so. Section 40(3) allows the Secretary of State to deprive a person who has obtained citizenship by naturalisation or registration, where the Secretary of State is satisfied that citizenship was obtained by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of material fact.
Three reports have been published to date in 2015, 2017 and 2018, which provide figures for section 40(2) deprivations. Figures for May 2010 to December 2014 are included in the 2015 report, figures for 2015 are in the 2017 report and the annual figures for 2016 and 2017 are listed in the 2018 report. The links to these reports are below:
Data relating to deprivation on fraud grounds under section 40 (3) is not currently published.