Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications are (a) outstanding and (b) remain unprocessed for more than ten weeks.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Since April 2021, people have been advised to allow up to ten weeks when applying for their British passport as more than 5 million people delayed applying due to the pandemic. 98.6% of all passport applications are dealt well within 10 weeks and we are processing around 250,000 per week,
A British passport cannot be issued until all checks are satisfactorily completed to ensure the applicant is entitled to hold one. If further information is required to enable an application to be progressed, then it will take longer.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of staff in the Passport Office working from home as of 18 May 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
For staff where they role can only be performed from an office, they will continue to work from a Home Office building at all times.
Her Majesty’s Passport Office operational teams securely process passport applications both working from an office and through the use of homeworking solutions. Passport Applications are being processed in higher numbers than ever before. Across March and April 2022, HM Passport Office completed the processing of approximately two million applications.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the backlog of outstanding passport applications.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Ahead of unrestricted international travel returning, HM Passport Office prepared extensively to serve an unprecedented number of customers, with 9.5 million British passport applications forecasted throughout 2022.
These preparations have ensured that passport applications can be processed in higher numbers than ever before. Across March and April 2022, HM Passport Office completed the processing of approximately two million applications.
Ministers continue to meet regularly with officials to monitor performance, and to explore further options that will help to ensure that people receive their passports in good time.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many items have been seized under the terms of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The total number of seizures from Quarter One of 2015 to Quarter One of 2020 is 5,136 items.
Seizures relating to products related to the Convention of international trade of endangered species (CITES), are published quarterly on the.gov.uk website.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department has spent on helping to prevent the illegal wildlife trade in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Since 2016, the Home Office has provided £136,000 annually to the National Wildlife Crime Unit to bolster work preventing wildlife crime both domestically and internationally.
Going forward, all decisions on government funding will be taken as part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many illegal immigrants have been apprehended while entering the UK in each of the 12 months from September (a) 2018 and (b) 2019.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication.
Information about enforcement operations is not available in our published data.
Our published data is available at the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-enforcement-data-august-2020
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-june-2020
Details on the number of people who have crossed the Channel in small boats between January 2018 and June 2020 was published, via a letter from the Home Secretary to the Home Affairs Select Committee, in September 2020.
The information is available at: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/2333/documents/22962/default/
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what was the annual value of the health service charges that her Department collects from immigrants working the the NHS and social care services in each of the last two years for which figures are available.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not collate or publish the information requested.
Income generated by Immigration Health Surcharge payments go directly to NHS services, helping to protect and sustain our world-class healthcare system for everyone who uses it.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will (a) place funding for the national wildlife crime unit on a permanent basis and (b) allocate to that unit sufficient funding to support the effective investigation of wildlife crimes.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office is providing funding of £136,000 to support the work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit in 2020/21. This will be in addition to the funding central Government is providing to police forces in England and Wales to tackle all types of crime, including wildlife crime.
Decisions about Home Office funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit beyond March 2021 will be taken as part of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure an adequate supply of labour for the (i) catering and (ii) hospitality industries after the introduction of controls on low-skilled workers from the (A) EU and (B) overseas.
Answered by Kevin Foster
This Government will reduce lower skilled migration. Free movement is ending, and we will not simply replicate it in a future system.
We need to shift the focus of our economy away from a reliance on cheap labour from Europe and immigration must also be considered alongside investment in technology, innovation, automation and the development of the UK’s domestic labour force.
Employers need to focus on investing in the people already here and make jobs more attractive for UK workers.
Businesses can continue to be able to rely on those EU/EEA nationals living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status and those who come to the UK through youth mobility schemes.
We are also committed to quadrupling the Seasonal Workers scheme for agriculture for non EEA nationals from 2,500 to 10,000 places.
As the future system is developed we will continue to engage with stakeholders form a range of industries and take advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee.
Asked by: Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the additional costs to be borne by the (a) catering and (b) hospitality industries as a result of the Government's proposals to limit low-skilled workers from (i) the EU and (ii) overseas.
Answered by Kevin Foster
This Government will reduce lower skilled migration. Free movement is ending, and we will not simply replicate it in a future system.
We need to shift the focus of our economy away from a reliance on cheap labour from Europe and immigration must also be considered alongside investment in technology, innovation, automation and the development of the UK’s domestic labour force.
Employers need to focus on investing in the people already here and make jobs more attractive for UK workers.
Businesses can continue to be able to rely on those EU/EEA nationals living in the UK with settled or pre-settled status and those who come to the UK through youth mobility schemes.
We are also committed to quadrupling the Seasonal Workers scheme for agriculture for non EEA nationals from 2,500 to 10,000 places.
As the future system is developed we will continue to engage with stakeholders form a range of industries and take advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee.