Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the backlog is for enhanced DBS checks by police area.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) operates to service standards of completing 80% of Enhanced check applications within 14 days. These service standards can be seen in quarterly performance reporting which the DBS publishes at: DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, the DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The latest published statistics are for September 2023 which show that the DBS is completing 78.1% of Enhanced check applications within 14 days. The DBS does not publish data by police area.
An Enhanced check requires the DBS to send applications to the police for local data searches and local intelligence checks. Currently some police forces’ turnaround times have been affected by increased volumes of disclosure applications against original forecasts.
Police forces are recruiting more staff to service the additional demand for Enhanced DBS checks The DBS is working collaboratively with policing partners to enhance the quality of an enhanced criminal record check referral to improve turnaround times and continues to modernise its services through the replacement of legacy systems and further digitisation of disclosure products.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the implementation of the Public Order Act 2023, what support her Department is providing to local councils that are managing protestors outside facilities providing abortion care.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is completely unacceptable that anyone should feel harassed or intimidated when trying to access, provide or facilitate abortion services.
The Police and Local Authorities already have powers to restrict harmful protests and prevent antisocial behaviour.
The Public Order Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 2 May. The timescales for commencing the new Section 9 offence of interference with access to, or provision of, abortion services will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidents of (a) fraud and (b) robbery of tourists on the west side of Westminster Bridge there have been in the latest period for which data is available; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information is not held in the requested format.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there were earned regularisation processing of distinct groups of undocumented people in each of the last five years; and what assessment her Department has made of the trends in the numbers of asylum applications in following years.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Immigration Rules provide routes for someone who does not have leave in the United Kingdom to apply for leave to remain and regularise their stay.
Under the Family and Human Rights route a person and their dependents if appropriate can apply to remain on the basis their Article 8 Human Rights would be breached if they were required to leave the UK.
The statistics for people applying to stay in the UK permanently can be found at Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release, please note that these statistics are taken from a live database and are subject to change.
The statistics for the numbers claiming asylum can be found at asylum detailed datasets
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide by 2 February 2022 the information asked for by Clive Stafford-Smith on the cases of Muriel McKay and Krishna Maharaj.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The files in question are not owned by the Home Office, and so the department is not in a position to make decisions as to access. Officials are exploring this further with a view to directing the family to the appropriate body if possible.
Any authority in receipt of such a request for information will consider the request on its merits, according to their standard procedures, as the Home Office has.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to provide to Rupert Burgess the documents he discussed with her.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The files in question are not owned by the Home Office, and so the department is not in a position to make decisions as to access. Officials are exploring this further with a view to directing the family to the appropriate body if possible.
Any authority in receipt of such a request for information will consider the request on its merits, according to their standard procedures, as the Home Office has.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she plans to publish the Government response to the consultation on the review of section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, published in May 2014.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The government is actively working on publishing the response to the consultation on the review of Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, and it will be published in due course.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effect on international student numbers of the decision to restrict UK student visas for foreign graduates to four months after completion of their studies.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Government welcomes international students to the UK, and recognises that they enhance our educational institutions both financially and culturally.
The recent announcement of the new Graduate route demonstrates that the UK is globally focussed and our commitment to attracting the brightest and best talent from around the world to study and work in the UK.
The UK already has an excellent and competitive visa offer for international students wanting to study at our world-class institutions and the introduction of the Graduate route is aimed at enhancing this by providing greater opportunities for talented international students who will be able to remain in the UK for two years to work once they have successfully completed their studies.
The number of university-sponsored Tier 4 student visa applications increased by 11% in the year ending June 2019, and is at its highest recorded level.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provision has been made for international students (a) studying and (b) recently graduated that are resident on their student visa since the previous restriction was made in 2012 who are not currently entitled to remain for two years after graduation to find a job.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Government welcomes international students to the UK, and recognises that they enhance our educational institutions both financially and culturally.
The recent announcement of the new Graduate route demonstrates that the UK is globally focussed and our commitment to attracting the brightest and best talent from around the world to study and work in the UK.
The UK already has an excellent and competitive visa offer for international students wanting to study at our world-class institutions and the introduction of the Graduate route is aimed at enhancing this by providing greater opportunities for talented international students who will be able to remain in the UK for two years to work once they have successfully completed their studies.
The number of university-sponsored Tier 4 student visa applications increased by 11% in the year ending June 2019, and is at its highest recorded level.
Asked by: Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department are taking to enable (a) current students and (b) recently graduated students still resident on their student visa to remain for two years after graduation in order to find a job.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Government welcomes international students to the UK, and recognises that they enhance our educational institutions both financially and culturally.
The recent announcement of the new Graduate route demonstrates that the UK is globally focussed and our commitment to attracting the brightest and best talent from around the world to study and work in the UK.
The UK already has an excellent and competitive visa offer for international students wanting to study at our world-class institutions and the introduction of the Graduate route is aimed at enhancing this by providing greater opportunities for talented international students who will be able to remain in the UK for two years to work once they have successfully completed their studies.
The number of university-sponsored Tier 4 student visa applications increased by 11% in the year ending June 2019, and is at its highest recorded level.