Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there is a cost implication to (a) his Department and (b) Serco of biometric residence permit cards being issued with errors.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
This information is not publicly available and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department takes to (a) mitigate delays in producing and (b) ensure the correct (i) names and (ii) bate of births are printed on newly issued biometric residence permits.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Home Office colleagues are working closely together to improve our processes and ensure Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) are issued as quickly as possible.
Caseworkers must ensure that the individual’s name, nationality and date of birth are correct and correspond to caseworking system records.
We are improving address data accuracy and ensuring that updated address data flows into the main case working system more efficiently. This will maintain the integrity of the system so that the BRP card is issued to the correct address and help reduce delays in the system.
BRP production is an automated function on our caseworking systems. However, delays can arise due to process errors. We have introduced a dedicated support function to work at speed to resolve user/process issues and to drive BRP process improvements across the end-to-end system.
Where customers encounter a delay in the receipt of their BRP, we offer a range of services to allow customers to report the delay, and we aim to resolve the problem within five working days of notification. Employers and landlords can use the Employer Checking Service and the Landlord Checking Service to verify a right to work or rent in the absence of a BRP, while Government departments and public bodies can verify status in the absence of a BRP through the Status Verification and Enquiries Checking (SVEC) team.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department is taking steps to assess the potential impact of delays in the production of biometric residence permits on the people affected.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Home Office colleagues are working closely together to improve our processes and ensure Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) are issued as quickly as possible.
Caseworkers must ensure that the individual’s name, nationality and date of birth are correct and correspond to caseworking system records.
We are improving address data accuracy and ensuring that updated address data flows into the main case working system more efficiently. This will maintain the integrity of the system so that the BRP card is issued to the correct address and help reduce delays in the system.
BRP production is an automated function on our caseworking systems. However, delays can arise due to process errors. We have introduced a dedicated support function to work at speed to resolve user/process issues and to drive BRP process improvements across the end-to-end system.
Where customers encounter a delay in the receipt of their BRP, we offer a range of services to allow customers to report the delay, and we aim to resolve the problem within five working days of notification. Employers and landlords can use the Employer Checking Service and the Landlord Checking Service to verify a right to work or rent in the absence of a BRP, while Government departments and public bodies can verify status in the absence of a BRP through the Status Verification and Enquiries Checking (SVEC) team.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many newly issued biometric residence permits have been returned due to clerical errors in their production in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to cancel or recall existing licenses that allow companies to carry out exclusive-use cosmetics ingredients on animals.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government is engaging with the relevant companies to urgently determine a way forward on legacy licences.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) reports of, (b) charges for and (c) convictions for shoplifting in (i) Preston and (ii) England there were in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information on the number of recorded offences for shoplifting and their investigative outcomes from police forces in England and Wales. These can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Data for the Preston Community Safety Partnership Area and England can be found in the table below:
Number of recorded offences of shoplifting and charges, by calendar year:
Recorded Crimes | Charges | |||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Preston | 735 | 898 | 1,214 | 93 | 64 | 102 |
England* | 240,157 | 238,097 | 291,120 | 45,604 | 35,381 | 43,592 |
* - Figures for England exclude Devon & Cornwall and British Transport Police
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of convictions for the offence ’46 Theft from shops’ in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2022, which can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2022
Information about the number of convictions by Community Safety Partnership (CSP) is not available. Police Force Area-level breakdowns are available in this tool, though note this will relate to the location of the convicting court which differ from where the offence took place.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests made by police forces in England and Wales, these are available here:
However, these data are only collected and published at the broader offence level, for example 'theft offences', therefore more detailed breakdowns such as 'shoplifting' are not available.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) incidents of and (b) arrests for shoplifting were recorded in each police force across England in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information on the number of recorded offences for shoplifting and their investigative outcomes from police forces in England and Wales. These can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Data for the Preston Community Safety Partnership Area and England can be found in the table below:
Number of recorded offences of shoplifting and charges, by calendar year:
Recorded Crimes | Charges | |||||
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Preston | 735 | 898 | 1,214 | 93 | 64 | 102 |
England* | 240,157 | 238,097 | 291,120 | 45,604 | 35,381 | 43,592 |
* - Figures for England exclude Devon & Cornwall and British Transport Police
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of convictions for the offence ’46 Theft from shops’ in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2022, which can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2022
Information about the number of convictions by Community Safety Partnership (CSP) is not available. Police Force Area-level breakdowns are available in this tool, though note this will relate to the location of the convicting court which differ from where the offence took place.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests made by police forces in England and Wales, these are available here:
However, these data are only collected and published at the broader offence level, for example 'theft offences', therefore more detailed breakdowns such as 'shoplifting' are not available.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to introduce a policy similar to Homes for Ukraine scheme for individuals from (a) Afghanistan, (b) Syria, (c) Sundan and (d) Ethiopa.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK continues to welcome refugees through existing resettlement schemes which are global in scope, including the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Community Sponsorship, the Mandate Resettlement Scheme and the Family Reunion Scheme. The UK has offered a place through these routes to just under 500,000 individuals since 2015.
Under these schemes, the UNHCR will refer refugees for resettlement after undertaking an assessment of people’s needs and vulnerabilities. The UK does not seek to influence which cases are referred by the UNHCR under these global schemes.
The Community Sponsorship Scheme is open to refugees of all nationalities under the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), or the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). As such, there are currently no plans to establish any new sponsorship schemes specifically for individuals from Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan or Ethiopia.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure the (a) monitoring of and (b) correct compensation for cancer among firefighters.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The health and safety of firefighters is of great importance. The Home Office will consider the recently published study that covers Scotland to understand its conclusions. It is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.
The “Fire and Rescue National Framework” also directs that all Fire and Rescue Authorities should have a people strategy which covers “health and safety, wellbeing, disabilities, and support (including mental health and physical support)”.
In addition, The National Fire Chiefs’ Council’s Health and Wellbeing lead has established a health and wellbeing board to drive positive change across the sector which focuses on prevention, early intervention and support for individuals. The Home Office will support these initiatives.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that children are given British citizenship when they are born outside the UK to British parents in same-sex couples.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A child born overseas will acquire British citizenship automatically if one of their parents is a British citizen, able to pass on that status, and recognised as the legal parent in UK law. Where a child is not British automatically there are options to register the child as a British citizen.
The Department for Health and Social Care have asked the fertility regulator, the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority, to start a consultation process about prioritising issues for reform in fertility law. This legislation covers who is a child’s parent in cases of assisted reproduction.