Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of which police roles are suitable for an applicant with a family history of Huntington's disease.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Decisions about police recruitment, are a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Chief Officers have a statutory duty of care to their officers and staff, and the public, and they must ensure candidates can be deployed safely in a role and fulfil the duties of a police officer.
Whether or not to recruit, and whether reasonable adjustments are possible, is ultimately the decision of individual Chief Officers, supported by the advice of occupational health professionals.
National guidance set by the College of Policing is clear that applicants seeking to join the police in England and Wales should be judged on their individual merits and circumstances. This includes consideration of their medical suitability.
All firearms officers must meet medical and fitness standards before initial training, and annually thereafter.
Information on the number of applicants received from those at risk of developing Huntington’s disease is not held by the department.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether a person at risk of developing Huntington's disease is considered medically fit to serve in police armed response units.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Decisions about police recruitment, are a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Chief Officers have a statutory duty of care to their officers and staff, and the public, and they must ensure candidates can be deployed safely in a role and fulfil the duties of a police officer.
Whether or not to recruit, and whether reasonable adjustments are possible, is ultimately the decision of individual Chief Officers, supported by the advice of occupational health professionals.
National guidance set by the College of Policing is clear that applicants seeking to join the police in England and Wales should be judged on their individual merits and circumstances. This includes consideration of their medical suitability.
All firearms officers must meet medical and fitness standards before initial training, and annually thereafter.
Information on the number of applicants received from those at risk of developing Huntington’s disease is not held by the department.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost was of the Home Secretary's flight by Chinook helicopter from Dover to the Manston immigration facility on 3 November 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by the Rt. Hon. Member James Heappey on 10th November to Question 79258.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of military personnel being based at the Manston processing centre on the mental health of asylum seekers based at that facility.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
It was always the case that Defence support to the Home Office will continue until January 2023, at which point the operational and wider arrangements will be reviewed.
Military personnel at the Manston site support the operation primarily through logistics and command and control. They do not routinely carry out duties that bring them into contact with people held at the facility.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects to revert command and control of the Manston immigration facility from the Armed Forces to Border Force.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
It was always the case that Defence support to the Home Office will continue until January 2023, at which point the operational and wider arrangements will be reviewed.
Military personnel at the Manston site support the operation primarily through logistics and command and control. They do not routinely carry out duties that bring them into contact with people held at the facility.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what personnel, from which agencies, are based at the Manston immigration facility.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The deployment of staff at Manston includes staff from Border Force, Immigration Enforcement, Asylum & Protection, Counter-Terror policing and staff from the Ministry of Defence / joint inter-agency taskforce under Op ISOTROPE.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects to revert command and control of tackling small boats crossing the English Channel from the Royal Navy to Border Force.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Defence support to the Home Office will continue until January 2023 as originally planned, at which point the operational and wider arrangements will be reviewed.
We are working across Government to ensure the conditions are set for Defence to hand the task back to the Home Office following the review, this includes supporting training and capability development.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many graduate student visa holders are accompanied by five or six dependents.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office does not routinely publish data on the number of recipients of international student visas who are accompanied by dependants.
Information on our immigration routes is available as part of our transparency data and can be found at: Visas and Citizenship data: Q2 2022.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of capping the number of graduate visas on the UK’s economy.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Our offer to international students is extremely competitive and ensures that we continue to attract the best and brightest students from around the world.
The Government’s International Education Strategy set out a target of attracting 600,000 international Higher Education students to the UK by 2030, which we have achieved almost a decade early.
The public also rightly expects us to control immigration and ensure we have a system that works in the UK’s best interests.
As the Growth Plan set out, the Government is looking at how immigration contributes to growth and will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department remains committed to the graduate visa route introduced in 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Our offer to international students is extremely competitive and ensures that we continue to attract the best and brightest students from around the world.
The Government’s International Education Strategy set out a target of attracting 600,000 international Higher Education students to the UK by 2030, which we have achieved almost a decade early.
The public also rightly expects us to control immigration and ensure we have a system that works in the UK’s best interests.
As the Growth Plan set out, the Government is looking at how immigration contributes to growth and will set out further details in due course.