Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timeframe is for the publication of the review of the DNA test requirements for immigration cases.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Darra Singh OBE has been appointed to conduct an independent assessment on the Home Office’s approach to establishing the numbers involved, the operational response, the policy response and the extent to which follow-up training and communications have addressed the issue.
The review will be completed in the first half of 2019, and the results published.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many suspected victims of human trafficking have been deported after being referred by the police to UK Visas and Immigration.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The figures for the number of suspected victims of trafficking or modern slavery referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) are published by the National Crime Agency. The NRM is a framework for identifying victims of human trafficking or modern slavery and ensuring they receive the appropriate support. In 2017, 5145 potential victims of trafficking were referred to the NRM, of which 1384 were referred by the police. For 2018 (up to the end June) there has been 3289 referrals into the NRM, of which 995 were via the police.
In order to understand how many of those referrals by the police were subsequently deported (or removed) we would need to extract the biodata from the NRM systems and cross-match it with the Case Information Database (CID). This data is not currently available at this time.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what protection is provided to victims of human trafficking to enable them to report trafficking to the police without fear of deportation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
All potential victims of modern slavery who receive a positive ‘reasonable grounds’ decision through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) are entitled to a comprehensive package of support for a minimum of 45 days, regardless of their immigration status. This includes access to safe house accommodation, support, and medical care including counselling as required.
Those confirmed to be victims through the NRM may be granted a period of leave to remain in the UK if they are helping the police with an inquiry, pursuing compensation, or their personal circumstances merit a grant of leave. Moreover, individuals can apply for asylum if they have a genuine fear of return to their country of origin. All asylum applications are looked at on a case-by-case basis, with caseworkers giving careful consideration to the circumstances of each individual. No one who is found to be at risk of persecution or serious harm in their country of origin will be returned there
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the 794 unaccompanied refugee children who were granted asylum in the UK in 2017 have made applications for family reunion.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
There is currently no provision in the Immigration Rules for children with refugee status in the UK to sponsor family members to join them. Allowing children to sponsor parents would create further incentives for more children to be encouraged, or even forced, to leave their family and risk hazardous journeys to the UK to sponsor relatives. This plays into the hands of criminal gangs who exploit vulnerable people and goes against our safeguarding responsibilities.
The Government believes the best interests of children are reflected in remaining with their families, claiming asylum in the first safe country they reach that is the fastest route to safety and relying on resettlement schemes to travel safely.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the Metropolitan police (a) collects and (b) stores personal data that is used for predictive crime mapping.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Any collection and storage of personal data for the purposes of predictive crime mapping by the Metropolitan Police Service is an operational matter for the Metropolitan Police Service.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle online hate crime.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The newly published Hate Crime Action Plan refresh sets out the Govern-ment’s plan to tackle hate crime, including how we will address online hate crime. These include the publication – by the Home Office and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) – of a White Paper that sets out proposals for future legislation around online harms, including hate crime. We will be supporting the upcoming review of hate crime legislation by the Law Commission, along with their current review of online abusive commu-nications.
We are also working directly with social media companies to support their ef-forts; engaging internationally to strengthen our approach; and funding the National Police Chiefs’ Council for the National Online Hate Crime Hub, which uses specially trained staff to investigate and action reports.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the 63 Windrush generation members that were wrongly removed from the UK first came to the attention of her Department as a result of the outsourcing company Capita’s trawl of past applications.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office held a contract with Capita from October 2012 to October 2016, to establish contact with individuals who were in the Migration Refusal Pool, which is a pool of records of those who have applied to remain in the UK but had not obtained any leave.
Those individuals who had been refused leave to remain in the UK, had their existing leave curtailed or had an application or representations rejected, were contacted by Capita to discuss the options open to them. The data for the individuals to be contacted was supplied to Capita by the Home Office.
More information about review of historical removals and detentions dating back to 2002 who might have been part of the Windrush generation, is set out in the second monthly update provided by the Home Secretary to the Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP on 21 August 2018. A copy of that letter has been deposited in the House Library.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Immigration, of 4 June 2018, Official Report, column 22 on students wrongly accused of cheating in the Test of English for International Communication, what proportion of students who remain in the UK will be covered by the review.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We are committed to reviewing the position for those who remain in the UK who have live litigation. As a result of the Immigration Act 2014 there is now only a right of appeal where claims raising asylum, humanitarian protection or human rights claims are refused.
Similar provisions are set out in the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016. Some of those refused as a result of an allegation of ETS fraud have made a Human Rights claim and will have an in country right of appeal if refused (unless the claim is clearly unfounded).
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Immigration, of 4 June 2018, Official Report, column 22 on students wrongly accused of cheating in the Test of English for International Communication, what proportion of students who remain in the UK will be covered by the review.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We are committed to reviewing the position for those who remain in the UK who have live litigation. As a result of the Immigration Act 2014 there is now only a right of appeal where claims raising asylum, humanitarian protection or human rights claims are refused.
Similar provisions are set out in the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016. Some of those refused as a result of an allegation of ETS fraud have made a Human Rights claim and will have an in country right of appeal if refused (unless the claim is clearly unfounded).
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the oral evidence of the Permanent Secretary of HMRC of 23 May and 5 June 2018 to the Treasury Committee, whether he has seen briefing papers on the estimated figures of £17-20 billion on the costs of the maximum facilitation model; and what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of those estimates.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Secretary is aware of these figures and his department is closely involved in the cross-government development of future customs models, including their operational requirements.
The Home Office is working closely with other Government Departments on the detailed logistical and operational planning for managing all the impacts of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, on and at the border. Cross-government preparations for EU exit at the border are being coordinated by the Border Delivery Group.