Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of applying bandings to regional areas of the UK to the base minimum salary thresholds and occupation-specific going rates for businesses employing people with skilled worker visas.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We do not plan to introduce varying salary requirements based on location. Our aim is to have a single immigration system which works for the whole of the UK.
Every occupation is expected to be paid at least the “going rate”, which is set at the median for all UK residents who perform that role, or the median rate for all qualifying occupations whichever is higher, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
The salary threshold, currently £41,700 for new applicants, is in place to ensure that resident workers’ wages should not be undercut and also to protect overseas workers from being used as low-cost labour.
Having a national salary limit keeps the Skilled Worker immigration route simple to operate and allows for movement between locations for larger companies.
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published a review of Skilled Worker salary requirements on 17 December, and repeated a recommendation they have made many times previously, that salary thresholds should be set at a UK-wide level:
"We continue to believe that ‘regional salary thresholds also bring more complexity and may be harder to enforce within the migration system, particularly as the UK is geographically small, making it is easy to live in one region and work in another’. We also do not want to institutionalise some parts of the UK as ‘lower wage’. Furthermore, as the MAC has shown previously, wages vary far more within regions than across them so even if thresholds were set at a regional level there would still be many areas of the UK that would struggle to meet them."
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to support people from Hong Kong with British National (Overseas) visas to apply for British citizenship to help ensure they are able to access pensions managed by (a) HSBC and (b) other UK-based pension providers.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to use Alexandra Business Park in St Helens to house asylum seekers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
We are unable to disclose publicly the specific location of any of our asylum accommodation in order to maintain the privacy and security of those accommodated and of staff who support destitute asylum seekers.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent the exploitation by county lines drug gangs of looked-after children placed out-of-borough.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
County lines have a devastating impact on our communities, and we are determined to crack down on these gangs and put an end to the exploitation of vulnerable children.
The National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC), established with £3.6m of Home Office funding, has been vital to strengthening our response to this issue by enhancing the intelligence picture and enabling police forces to work together to tackle this complex, cross border threat. Since it became operational in September 2018 the NCLCC has coordinated four weeks of intensive law enforcement action resulting in over 2,500 arrests and over 3,000 individuals engaged for safeguarding.
The Home Office has also announced £25m of targeted investment across 2019/20 and 2020/21 to uplift the law enforcement response to county lines and increase the support available to children, young people and families that are affected.
In addition, the Government provides a range of support for county lines victims including: funding Young People’s Advocates in Birmingham, Manchester and London to provide help and support for young people exploited through county lines, and funding through the £13m Trusted Relationships fund to help foster relationships between frontline professionals and young people at risk of exploitation including county lines.
The needs of the child are paramount when deciding the right care placement and Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that there is sufficient provision for their looked after children.
Lack of sufficient placements to meet young people’s needs can lead to children being placed out of area. The Government is helping to improve commissioning of placements, including providing funding through the Department for Education’s £200 million children’s social care Innovation Programme.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the implications for policing in (a) Merseyside and (b) England and Wales of an increase in crimes recorded and a fall in criminal charges brought since 2014-15.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The likelihood of a crime resulting in a charge can vary for a number of reasons, including the complexity or severity of an offence or the difficulty in identifying a suspect.
Changes in charge rates are likely to be the result of a combination of improved crime recording by the police and forces taking on more complex crimes which take longer to receive an outcome, such as domestic abuse or sexual offences.
The statistics show that there has been a societal shift towards victims reporting ‘hidden’ crimes to the police and we welcome that more victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence are feeling empowered to come forward.
We recognise that demand on the police is changing and have responded positively by providing a strong and comprehensive settlement that provides a £460m increase in overall funding in 2018/19, including increased funding to tackle counter-terrorism and additional funding for local policing through Council Tax precept.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many offences involving a knife were committed in (a) St Helens South and Whiston constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) England and Wales in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office collects data on the number of selected offences involving a knife or a sharp instrument recorded by the police in England and Wales at the police force areas level only.
Data on knife offences at the police force area level can be found in the Home Office Knife Crime Open Data Tables, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The Home Office does not hold information on the average age of the perpetrators of knife crimes. Information on the offenders is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the average age of perpetrators of knife crimes in (a) St Helens South and Whiston constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) England and Wales in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office collects data on the number of selected offences involving a knife or a sharp instrument recorded by the police in England and Wales at the police force areas level only.
Data on knife offences at the police force area level can be found in the Home Office Knife Crime Open Data Tables, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The Home Office does not hold information on the average age of the perpetrators of knife crimes. Information on the offenders is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many offences involving the use of a scrambler bike were committed in (a) St Helens South and Whiston constituency, (b) Merseyside and (c) in England and Wales in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office collects data on the number of crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. However, from the information we hold it is not possible to identify which crimes involve the use of scrambler bikes.
The crimes recorded by the police are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and can be found here:
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to increase police powers in relation to offences involving scrambler bikes.
Answered by Nick Hurd
We have no plans to increase powers in this area. The police already have a range of powers to deal with vehicles being used unlawfully. This includes the specific power in section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 to seize motor vehicles used in a careless and inconsiderate manner or in a manner causing alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. This power is available in respect of any motorised vehicle, whether or not intended for use on roads, including scrambler bikes.