Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what processes are in place to ensure that representations can be made to the Defending Democracy Taskforce by non-members.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Defending Democracy Taskforce was established in November 2022. Its mission statement is to reduce the risk of foreign interference to the UK’s democratic processes, institutions, and society, and ensure that these are secure and resilient to threats of foreign interference.
The Taskforce is a cross-departmental and inter-agency initiative made up of ministers and officials from policy-owning departments, including the Cabinet Office, Home Office, DSIT, DLUHC and DfE, law enforcement, the UK intelligence community and Parliament.
Meetings of the Taskforce will be complemented by wider formal engagement with partners outside central government and Parliament, including in the devolved administrations, local government and private, education and third sectors.
The government takes the risk of foreign interference in higher education very seriously.
This is why there is already a dedicated cross-government programme of work to assess and counter foreign interference in higher education. This responsibility ultimately lies with Department for Education, but the Taskforce has taken a keen interest in this issue and will continue to support efforts to protect academic freedoms and universities from the threat of foreign interference.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Defending Democracy Taskforce plans to make an assessment of foreign interference at universities; and whether representatives from universities can participate in relevant meetings.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Defending Democracy Taskforce was established in November 2022. Its mission statement is to reduce the risk of foreign interference to the UK’s democratic processes, institutions, and society, and ensure that these are secure and resilient to threats of foreign interference.
The Taskforce is a cross-departmental and inter-agency initiative made up of ministers and officials from policy-owning departments, including the Cabinet Office, Home Office, DSIT, DLUHC and DfE, law enforcement, the UK intelligence community and Parliament.
Meetings of the Taskforce will be complemented by wider formal engagement with partners outside central government and Parliament, including in the devolved administrations, local government and private, education and third sectors.
The government takes the risk of foreign interference in higher education very seriously.
This is why there is already a dedicated cross-government programme of work to assess and counter foreign interference in higher education. This responsibility ultimately lies with Department for Education, but the Taskforce has taken a keen interest in this issue and will continue to support efforts to protect academic freedoms and universities from the threat of foreign interference.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) application process is and (b) appointment criteria are for members of the Defending Democracy Taskforce
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Defending Democracy Taskforce was established in November 2022. Its mission statement is to reduce the risk of foreign interference to the UK’s democratic processes, institutions, and society, and ensure that these are secure and resilient to threats of foreign interference.
The Taskforce is a cross-departmental and inter-agency initiative made up of ministers and officials from policy-owning departments, including the Cabinet Office, Home Office, DSIT, DLUHC and DfE, law enforcement, the UK intelligence community and Parliament.
Meetings of the Taskforce will be complemented by wider formal engagement with partners outside central government and Parliament, including in the devolved administrations, local government and private, education and third sectors.
The government takes the risk of foreign interference in higher education very seriously.
This is why there is already a dedicated cross-government programme of work to assess and counter foreign interference in higher education. This responsibility ultimately lies with Department for Education, but the Taskforce has taken a keen interest in this issue and will continue to support efforts to protect academic freedoms and universities from the threat of foreign interference.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that police forces are correctly storing rape kits provided by victims to ensure they can be used as evidence.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We expect every report of rape to be treated seriously from the point of disclosure, every victim to be treated with dignity and every investigation to be conducted thoroughly and professionally.
The Forensic Science Regulator has provided guidance on the retention and storage of forensic samples through the existing Codes of Practice and Conduct since 2011. This will continue in the Regulator’s new statutory Code of Practice which comes into force this October.
In addition, in 2021 the Home Office-funded Forensic Capability Network published guidance for policing on the Retention, Storage and Destruction of Materials.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2023 to Question 137918, what assessment she has made of the impact of the absence of 2022 data on complaints, refunds and processing times on the monitoring of super priority visa applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The technical issue that has prevented the release of customer service standards data for 2022 relates to the wider transition of immigration caseworking from a legacy IT system to the new Atlas system. As part of that change, published datasets relating to immigration casework have also had to be transitioned to new systems. The majority of published datasets have been maintained during this transition.
In the case of data on customer service standards, key data attributes needed to calculate performance against the standards for quarterly publication have only recently become available in statistical data systems, as part of the planned transition process. As such, customer service standards data is expected to be reintroduced from the 2023 Quarter 1 migration transparency data release in May.
There is no impact on our monitoring of super priority visa (SPV) performance and we continue to offer SPV across a range of routes for our customers applying both overseas and in the UK.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 February 2023 to Question 137918, when the technical issue was first detected; how long it took to resolve the issue; what the estimated cost of fixing the issue was; and when she plans to publish the data.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The technical issue that has prevented the release of customer service standards data for 2022 relates to the wider transition of immigration caseworking from a legacy IT system to the new Atlas system. As part of that change, published datasets relating to immigration casework have also had to be transitioned to new systems. The majority of published datasets have been maintained during this transition.
In the case of data on customer service standards, key data attributes needed to calculate performance against the standards for quarterly publication have only recently become available in statistical data systems, as part of the planned transition process. As such, customer service standards data is expected to be reintroduced from the 2023 Quarter 1 migration transparency data release in May.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the total amount spent by her Department in refunding super priority visa applicants was in 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes migration transparency data on the gov.uk website. The latest published data was released on 24 November 2022 and the report covers the period up until end of September 2022.
Historically, we have included performance against customer service standards within the published data up until Quarter 3 of 2021, however due to a technical issue we have been unable to release the 2022 figures. It is our intention to reintroduce these figures as part of future migration transparency data releases now that the technical issue has been resolved.
We are unable to provide data on how much the Home Office has refunded to super priority visa applicants in 2022. The information is held over multiple computer systems and various immigration routes, which would require a manual trawl to obtain and collate into a report, thereby exceeding time/cost limits.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time was to process a super priority visa in 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes migration transparency data on the gov.uk website. The latest published data was released on 24 November 2022 and the report covers the period up until end of September 2022.
Historically, we have included performance against customer service standards within the published data up until Quarter 3 of 2021, however due to a technical issue we have been unable to release the 2022 figures. It is our intention to reintroduce these figures as part of future migration transparency data releases now that the technical issue has been resolved.
We are unable to provide data on how much the Home Office has refunded to super priority visa applicants in 2022. The information is held over multiple computer systems and various immigration routes, which would require a manual trawl to obtain and collate into a report, thereby exceeding time/cost limits.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of super priority visa applications were processed within five working days in 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes migration transparency data on the gov.uk website. The latest published data was released on 24 November 2022 and the report covers the period up until end of September 2022.
Historically, we have included performance against customer service standards within the published data up until Quarter 3 of 2021, however due to a technical issue we have been unable to release the 2022 figures. It is our intention to reintroduce these figures as part of future migration transparency data releases now that the technical issue has been resolved.
We are unable to provide data on how much the Home Office has refunded to super priority visa applicants in 2022. The information is held over multiple computer systems and various immigration routes, which would require a manual trawl to obtain and collate into a report, thereby exceeding time/cost limits.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to extend eligibility of the Resettlement Scheme for vulnerable people in Afghanistan beyond the Pathway 3 criteria.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
There are no plans to expand the criteria under the existing pathways of the
the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). Eligible people will be prioritised and referred for resettlement to the UK through one of three referral pathways, which is a fair and equitable way to identify those in need.
Under Pathway 3, in the first year, places will be offered to eligible at-risk British Council contractors, GardaWorld contractors, and Chevening alumni in Afghanistan or the region.
Beyond the first year of Pathway 3, we will continue to work with international partners and NGOs to welcome wider groups of Afghans at risk. Further detail will be set out in due course.
Definitions for these eligibility criteria can be found at: Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme Pathway 3: eligibility for British Council and GardaWorld contractors and Chevening Alumni - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)