Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support the Government provides local authorities who express an interest in resettling refugee children under the Immigration Act 2016.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The UK Government takes it’s responsibility in all cases involving children seriously and we will continue to ensure that all unaccompanied children are provided with appropriate care, regardless of their route to the UK.
It is important that we work with local authorities to understand their capacity to support all unaccompanied children and ensure their needs can be met. That is why my officials are working closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Education to ensure consultation with local authorities is consistent and coordinated across all resettlement and relocation programmes. Consultation with local government partners will take place over the coming weeks and Parliament will be updated in due course.
We are keen to ensure that there is a more equitable distribution of unaccompanied children across the UK and that no local authority is required to take more children than they can support.
The Home Office provides funding to local authorities for the care of unaccompanied asylum seeking children and recently announced new enhanced rates to support the transfer scheme. We will continue to measure the impacts on local authorities, but are clear that funding for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and refugees must be aligned, regardless of the route of entry for the child.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate has she made of the number of vulnerable Syrians who have not sought refuge in refugee camps owing to concerns for their own safety; and whether the Government's Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme contains provisions to assist such people.
Answered by James Brokenshire
It is estimated that across the region, only 23% of Syrian refugees are in formal camps: the remaining 77% are living amongst host communities.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) identifies and proposes Syrian refugees for the Vulnerable Person Relocation scheme from among the whole of the registered refugee population in the region, over 4 million people. This includes people in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities. Therefore many of those coming to the UK for resettlement will not be coming from UN camps.
We are working with UNHCR and other partners to intensify their outreach to groups that might otherwise be reluctant to register for fear of stigma/discrimination and unaware of the safe space and options available to them. This includes all religious minorities, LGBT, people with disabilities, survivors of torture and sexual violence and others.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the implications for her policies on harm caused by alcohol are of the finding in the Balance report, The second hand harm of alcohol in the North East, published on 17 February 2016, on the proportion of people in the North East who have suffered harm at least once due to the drinking of others in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Balance report ‘The second hand harm of alcohol in the North East’ highlights a range of harms caused by other people’s drinking. The Government acknowledges that the costs of alcohol-related harm are too high. Alcohol-related harm is estimated to cost society over £21 billion per year, including £11 billion costs of alcohol-related crime, £3.5 billion costs to the NHS and £7.3 billion costs in lost productivity based on 2009-10 data. The Government will soon be publishing a Modern Crime Prevention Strategy which will set out new action to reduce alcohol-fuelled crime and violence.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government plans to take to (a) tackle sexual abuse and sexual crime involving 16 and 17 year olds and (b) better educate young people about sexual abuse.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation is a top priority for this Government. In March 2015 we launched the “Tackling CSE” report and prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement, setting a clear expectation on police forces to collaborate across force boundaries, to safeguard children, to share intelligence and to share best practice.
Our “This is Abuse” campaign has sent clear messages to prevent young people becoming victims or perpetrators of sexual violence by helping teenagers to recognise and understand sexual abuse. It also signposts them to appropriate support including specialist services, counselling, Independent Sexual Violence Advisers, and helplines.
The College of Policing and the National Policing lead have set the requirement on all forces to train all new and existing police staff including police officers, detectives and specialist investigators to respond to child sexual abuse. In addition, all police forces and the NCA are now connected to the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID). CAID is a national UK policing system that supports law enforcement in the pursuit of offenders involved in the sexual exploitation of children and in safeguarding the victims of this crime.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on merging police forces in England.
Answered by Mike Penning
It is the role of directly elected local Police and Crime Commissioners to propose changes to local policing, not the Home Office. Any request from police forces to voluntarily merge would be considered where it is supported by a robust business case and has local consent.
It is not necessary for police forces to merge in order to become more efficient. Existing legislation places a strong duty on Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to collaborate in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness. Many are demonstrating that savings can be generated through collaboration without sacrificing local accountability and identity.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what screening provisions the Government has put in place to prevent people who wish to cause the UK harm from entering the UK through the Syrian refugee resettlement programme.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We take security extremely seriously in cases referred to us for resettlement, working closely with the UNHCR who have their own robust identification processes in place. When potential cases are submitted by the UNHCR for our consideration they are screened and considered by the Home Office for suitability for entry to the UK: we retain the right to reject individuals on security, war crimes or other grounds. For reasons of national security, we cannot provide further on the details of the screening process itself.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the level of protection provided by harassment laws afforded to women who are harassed when visiting abortion clinics.
Answered by Mike Penning
I refer the Rt. Hon Member to the answer I gave to 5385 on the 13 July 2015.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce a transition period for her Department's planned reduction in the number of English language test centres.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The new arrangements provide for immigration and nationality applicants to have their English language ability tested securely. The provision of test centres was planned to give appropriate coverage to meet anticipated customer demand, whilst allowing the Home Office to implement a robust audit regime. Managing demand across the network is a key requirement for the selected providers.
Transitional arrangements are in place to enable those who took tests at previous test centres before April 6 2015 to continue to use those tests in support of immigration applications until November. Additionally, individuals intending to apply for settlement and citizenship after November 2015 have been given more than six months’ notice that they will be required to take a Secure English Language Test.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent representations she has received from higher education institutions on the proposed reduction of English Language test centres.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Home Office receives regular correspondence from the Higher Education sector and investigation to date indicate that since the General Election on 7th May 2015 the Home Office has received one representation on behalf of a higher education institution regarding the reduction of English Language test centres.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what exceptional circumstances outside the normal financial requirements there are for interpreters who have worked with the British Army in Afghanistan to settle their spouses in the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Under the Ex Gratia Scheme for Afghan Locally Engaged Civilians Staff scheme those eligible for relocation to the United Kingdom can apply to bring with them, at the same time, a spouse, civil partner or person over the age of 18 who has been living with them in a relationship akin to a marriage or civil partnership for at least two years prior to the date of application. These family members are not subject to the usual financial requirements.
Those beneficiaries of the scheme who wish to bring their wives to the UK at a later date, or who subsequently marry an Afghan or other national, will have to apply under the normal immigration rules and meet the financial requirements set out under those rules. There are no plans to change this.