Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the letter dated 24 January 2022 from the Independent Anti Slavery Commissioner in response to the Government's evaluation of the Seasonal Workers Pilot, whether she plans to accept and implement the Commissioner's recommendations on (a) introducing mechanisms to listen to workers, (b) introducing an independent grievance mechanism, (c) introducing remediation for workers who have paid recruitment fees and (d) assessing and addressing risks in the scheme before expansion.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We have noted the recommendations made in the Independent Anti Slavery Commissioner letter and will respond to her in due course.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Afghans (a) have arrived in the UK in total under Operation Warm Welcome, (b) have arrived under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme, (c) were British citizens, and (c) were neither British citizens or did not qualify under the Policy and will be allocated places under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme since August 2021.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
C.15,000 people were evacuated from Afghanistan during Operation Pitting, with a further c.1,500 brought to the UK from neighbouring countries since then.
We will not give a running commentary on statistics due to the continuing flow of people being welcomed. We will include this data within published resettlement statistics in 2022.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Afghans relocated to the UK under the ARAP scheme including Locally Employed Staff will count towards the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme allocation of 20,000.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) is separate from, and in addition to, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), which offers any current or former locally employed staff assessed to be under serious threat to life priority relocation to the UK.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department’s draft statutory guidance on Unauthorised Encampments, what constitutes significant damage, disruption, or distress.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The draft statutory guidance on unauthorised encampments gives examples of what might be considered by police and by courts to be significant damage, disruption and distress.
It is for the police and courts to assess the circumstances and the evidence of each individual case and to decide on proportionate enforcement action based on this.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the draft statutory guidance on Unauthorised Encampments on gypsy, Romani and traveller communities.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We have carefully considered the impact the new measures might have on people with protected characteristics, including race and ethnicity, in accordance with the Public Sector Equality Duty under the Equality Act 2010.
The overarching equality impact assessment was published in September and is publicly available. Home Office measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: Equalities Impact Assessment - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on ensuring that no foreign national resident in the UK is prevented from travelling overseas because their passports is being held by DVLA outside the agreed timescale for processing provisional driving licence applications.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The DVLA recognises the importance to applicants of having possession of their identity documents for a range of reasons, including overseas travel.
The DVLA has introduced additional online services, recruited additional staff, and secured extra office space to help reduce waiting times. DVLA staff are working as quickly as possible to return people’s documentation to them when processing a driving licence application.