Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is the policy of her Department to require completion of immigration cards by UK citizens arriving at UK airports from EU destinations.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
A citizen of the UK, encompassing Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is regarded as a British citizen. British citizens are not required to complete a landing card when arriving at UK airports from European Union destinations or anywhere else.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to accelerate the family reunification process for unaccompanied children in Europe.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government began work to implement the ‘Dubs amendment’ immediately after the Immigration Bill gained Royal Assent. Over 30 children who meet the criteria in the Immigration Act have been accepted for transfer since it received Royal Assent in May, the majority of these have already arrived in the UK.
We continue to work with the French, Greek and Italian authorities and others to speed up existing family reunification processes or implement new processes where necessary for unaccompanied children. We have seconded a UK official to Greece; we have a long-standing secondee working in Italy and will shortly be seconding another official to the French Interior Ministry to support these efforts.
We have established a dedicated team in the Home Office Dublin Unit to lead on family reunion cases for unaccompanied children. Transfer requests under the Dublin Regulation are now generally processed within 10 days and children transferred within weeks. Over 120 children have been accepted for transfer this year from Europe.
We also continue to consult local authorities about the transfer unaccompanied refugee children from Europe to the UK, where it is in their best interests
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the Government will make a commitment at the UN General Assembly meetings on refugees and migrants on 19 and 20 September 2016 to allow more refugees to reach the UK safely and legally.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government has no plans to introduce additional pathways for refugees to come to the UK. The UK is already a leading resettlement state, offering a number of safe and legal pathways for refugees. In the year ending June 2016, a total of 3,439 people were resettled in the UK.
In addition to the 20,000 Syrian refugees and up to 3,000 vulnerable persons from the Middle East and North Africa region that the Government has committed to resettle by 2020, the UK has also committed to relocate unaccompanied refugee children from France, Greece and Italy. Under the family reunion policy we have reunited around 22,000 refugees with their immediate family over the past five years and will continue to do so. The Government supports the principle that those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. This allows vulnerable persons to receive help quickly rather than risking their lives on hazardous journeys into and across Europe or falling victim to criminal gangs who are exploiting the situation. Providing humanitarian aid in the region is the best way to provide much needed support to the majority of those fleeing persecution while working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to resettle the most vulnerable who cannot reasonably remain.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans the Government has to improve the provision of asylum accommodation.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
We have worked closely with our COMPASS Providers to improve property standards and over the lifetime of the contract quality standards have increased. Where issues with accommodation are discovered we work with our contractors to ensure issues are quickly addressed. When they are not we can and do impose sanctions and seek remedial plans to drive improvement. Through continued engagement with service users and accommodation providers and regular property inspections the Home Office will continue to ensure asylum accommodation is adequate.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of excluding Scotland from the scope of the net migration target.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Our immigration system is designed to work for the whole of the UK and surveys show that people in Scotland want to see net migration reduced. We have a Scotland-specific Shortage Occupation List to accommodate skills shortages which are specific to Scotland. Applying substantially different immigration rules to different parts of the UK would complicate the immigration system, harming its integrity, and cause confusion for applicants and difficulties for employers who need the flexibility to deploy their staff to other parts of the UK.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with people from other EU countries living in the UK since the EU referendum on their right to live in the UK after the UK's exit from the EU.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Government Ministers and officials engage with a wide range of stakeholders.
The Prime Minister has been clear that she wants to protect the status of EU nationals here. The only circumstances in which that would not be possible are if British citizens’ rights in other EU Member States were not protected in return.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish Government plans to deploy armed officers from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary to support territorial police forces and to use the military to backfill such officers in civil nuclear establishments.
Answered by John Hayes
The Civil Nuclear Constabulary and territorial police forces offer mutual support through individual agreements. As the Prime Minister said in his statement to the House of Commons on 23 November [23 Nov 2015: Column 1051], plans are in place to enable military personnel to support the Police in the event of major terrorist incidents in the UK. Military personnel will be able to fill a number of operational tasks. For national security reasons, it would not be appropriate for me to comment further on these detailed operational agreements.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Canadian nationals have been refused indefinite leave to remain in the UK in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The requested information for the period 2005 to 2014 is provided in the table below.
Canadian nationals refused indefinite leave to remain | ||||
Year | Total refusals | |||
2005 | 40 | |||
2006 | 20 | |||
2007 | 23 | |||
2008 | 30 | |||
2009 | 36 | |||
2010 | 30 | |||
2011 | 15 | |||
2012 | 12 | |||
2013 | 18 | |||
2014 | 18 | |||
Source: | ||||
Corresponding information for 2015 will be published on 26th August 2016.
The Home Office publishes figures on people refused indefinite leave to remain by nationality (in country refusals of settlement) in table se_03 of the Immigration Statistics release. A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics October to December 2015, is available from https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will intervene to suspend the decision by Capita relating to Mrs Marleen Baldwin; and if she will ensure that Mrs Baldwin is not forcibly removed from the UK until she has reviewed her case.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We do not comment publicly on individual cases. UK Visas and Immigration will write to the Honourable Member to provide an update on this case.
There are no plans for a specific review of the administrative handling of immigration applications from Canadian nationals for indefinite leave to remain. UK Visas and Immigration is, however, committed to the principles of continuous improvement and to applying these to ensure processes are efficient and effective.
The administrative requirements, and service standards, to which applicants for indefinite leave to remain are subject, are set out at www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/settle-in-the-uk. This information is reviewed regularly, with a view to ensuring it is as clear as possible.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will review the application for indefinite leave submitted by Mrs Marleen Baldwin and the notice of subsequent curtailment issued by her Department.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We do not comment publicly on individual cases. UK Visas and Immigration will write to the Honourable Member to provide an update on this case.
There are no plans for a specific review of the administrative handling of immigration applications from Canadian nationals for indefinite leave to remain. UK Visas and Immigration is, however, committed to the principles of continuous improvement and to applying these to ensure processes are efficient and effective.
The administrative requirements, and service standards, to which applicants for indefinite leave to remain are subject, are set out at www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/settle-in-the-uk. This information is reviewed regularly, with a view to ensuring it is as clear as possible.