Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to (a) protect from exploitation and (b) monitor the employment conditions of construction workers with Skilled Worker visas.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
All visa holders are entitled to the same employment protections as resident workers. Nonetheless, the Skilled Worker route also includes a range of additional protections to ensure the welfare of migrant workers. These include minimum salary requirements to ensure workers receive a fair wage for the work they are sponsored to do, and an English language requirement which, as well as helping workers to integrate, ensures they are better able to understand their rights, protect themselves from exploitation and seek help where needed.
Sponsors of workers are monitored to ensure that workers are paid appropriately and not otherwise exploited. This includes regular checks with HMRC. Any discrepancies found or allegations of exploitation made are investigated and, if appropriate, action is taken against the sponsor.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking reduce waiting times for decisions on visa applications for people who have already provided all the required documents.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The majority of our visa routes are currently operating within their global customer service standards across all of the main legal migration routes for customers who make an entry clearance application from overseas. If exceptional compelling and compassionate circumstances are raised, these will be considered in the usual way.
Details of current performance against these customer service standards are updated regularly and can be found at:
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab)
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will waive the requirement for asylum seekers to seek employment from the shortage occupations list for those asylum seekers who have waited for a decision on asylum claims for more than one year.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Asylum seekers who are in the UK asylum system and have had their asylum claim outstanding for 12 months or more, through no fault of their own, are allowed to work. Those permitted to work are restricted to jobs on the Shortage Occupations List (SOL), which is based on expert advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The list comprises skilled jobs where there is an identified national shortage which is sensible to fill, at least in part, through immigration. More information regarding MAC is available at: Migration Advisory Committee - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
It is important that our policy approach distinguishes between those who need protection and those seeking to work here who can apply for a work visa under the Immigration Rules. Therefore, at present there are no plans to waive the requirements to seek employment via the SOL. Asylum seekers do not need to make perilous journeys in order to seek employment in the United Kingdom. There are various safe and legal routes for those seeking to work in the UK under the Points Based System.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to offer eligibility to Pathway 3 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme to future Chevening Alumni from Afghanistan.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK has made an ambitious and generous commitment to help relocate at-risk people in Afghanistan. To date, nearly 24,600 people have been brought to safety, this includes the first individuals to be relocated under Pathway 3 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).
Under the first stage of Pathway 3, 1,500 places were made available to at risk people from three groups, who directly supported the UK and international community’s efforts in Afghanistan: British Council contractors, GardaWorld contractors and Chevening alumni. Our immediate focus is on ensuring their resettlement.
Beyond the first stage of Pathway 3, we will work with international partners and NGOs to welcome wider groups of Afghans at risk. Further detail will be set out in due course.
We recognise there are many vulnerable individuals who remain in Afghanistan and the region. Unfortunately, the capacity of the UK to resettle people is not unlimited and difficult decisions about who will be prioritised have to be made.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what IT problems are causing delays in issuing biometric resident permit cards; and when they expect those IT problems to be fixed.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
There are currently no direct BRP production issues. Where a BRP cannot be produced then these cases can be dealt with on a case by case basis.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hours on average police officers spend in Accident and Emergency each month waiting for sectioned people to receive treatment.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on detentions under section 135 and section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983, by financial year, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical bulletin.
The most recent data, for the year ending March 2022, are available here:
Number of detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983, by year and legislation, England and Wales1,2, 2020/21 to 2021/22
Year ending… | Legislation | |
Section 136 | Section 1353 | |
March 2021 | 33,883 | 2,691 |
March 2022 | 36,529 | 2,901 |
Notes:
Data are not available broken down by month.
The section 136 data includes a breakdown by place of safety that the person was first taken to, such as A&E. However, data on the amount of time police officers spend at the place of safety are not collected.
Data for the year ending March 2023 will be published in Autumn 2023.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people the police have detained under section 1365 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on detentions under section 135 and section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983, by financial year, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical bulletin.
The most recent data, for the year ending March 2022, are available here:
Number of detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983, by year and legislation, England and Wales1,2, 2020/21 to 2021/22
Year ending… | Legislation | |
Section 136 | Section 1353 | |
March 2021 | 33,883 | 2,691 |
March 2022 | 36,529 | 2,901 |
Notes:
Data are not available broken down by month.
The section 136 data includes a breakdown by place of safety that the person was first taken to, such as A&E. However, data on the amount of time police officers spend at the place of safety are not collected.
Data for the year ending March 2023 will be published in Autumn 2023.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will grant indefinite leave to remain to (a) Ahmad Abdul Tawfiq and (b) other Afghan Chevening scholars studying in the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK made an ambitious and generous commitment to help resettle those fleeing persecution and those who served the UK. Since June 2021, we have brought 24,600 people to safety to the UK. This includes British Nationals and their families, Afghans who loyally served the UK and others identified as particularly at-risk, such as campaigners for women’s rights, human rights defenders, Chevening scholars, journalists, judges and members of the LGBT+ community.
Whilst I cannot comment on individual cases, under Pathway 1, vulnerable and at-risk individuals who arrived in the UK under the Afghan evacuation programme have been the first to be settled under the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). This includes those Chevening scholars who were evacuated, and those who were notified by the UK Government that they had been called forward or specifically authorised for evacuation but were not able to board flights and have subsequently arrived in the UK.
Individuals on the 2020/21 and 2021/22 Chevening programmes who were in the UK and did not meet the eligibility requirements for ACRS Pathway 3, which includes Chevening alumni at risk, were granted Indefinite Leave to Remain outside of the Rules, alongside their immediate family members who were also already in the UK.
Chevening awards were offered to Afghans resident in safe third countries for the academic year 2022-23. It was made clear to applicants that the scholarship is not an offer of resettlement and that the usual Chevening policy would apply, including the requirement to leave the UK at the end of their scholarship.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of Sudanese refugees in Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We are unable to provide the requested information in the Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency, as it is not held in a reportable format and would require a manual search through individual records.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the asylum processing system for Hong Kong citizens.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it. There have been a total of 139,144 grants of out of country BN(O) visas and a total of 27,276 grants of in country BN(O) visas since its introduction on 31 January 2021 up to the end of March 2023.
All asylum claims are considered on a case-by-case basis in line with published policy including those raised by Hong Kong nationals.