Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many bicycle thefts there were in (a) London and (b) England in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office works closely with the British Transport Police (BTP), the national lead for cycle theft, to tackle the theft of bicycles. BTP have recently launched the ‘double lock it’ campaign with police forces and organisations, providing advice to owners to help better protect their bicycles. Further information on the campaign and bicycle locks can be found here: https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/campaigns/double-lock-it/.
The Department for Transport (DfT) published its Cycling and Walking Plan for England, Gear Change, in 2020, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-and-walking-plan-for-england. The Plan aims to boost cycling and walking and sets out a number of initiatives to combat cycle theft DfT is leading including encouraging retailers to number the bicycles they sell and offer customers the opportunity to register their bicycle on a database at the point of sale.
The BTP-led National Cycle Crime Group, working with DfT, have set up Cycle Crime Reduction Partnerships across the country to coordinate regional enforcement activity to disrupt organised cycle theft.
The Home Office collects and publishes official statistics on the number of bicycle theft offences reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales and their investigative outcomes including charges, on a quarterly basis. These can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables The number of police recorded bicycle theft offences for London and England are as follows. | |
(Source: Home Office Police Recorded Crime) | |
Year ending September 2022 | |
London | 19,374 |
England | 70,873 |
|
|
|
|
Bicycle theft figures from the Crime Survey of England and Wales in Mar 2010 compared to now, which are:
Year to Mar 2010: 466,000
Year to June 2022: 242,000
Reduction of 48%
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the UK Visas and Immigration general enquiry line.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Teleperformance are our commercial provider who deliver contact centre services on behalf of UKVI.
UKVI closely monitor the volumes of calls and emails received to the general enquiry lines and are able to increase the number of call agents deployed to support any increase in demand. UKVI works closely with the service provider to review performance and ensures that service standards are maintained.
Quality and complaint standards are regularly monitored to ensure that information given to customers is accurate, professional, consistent and of the highest quality.
To date, the helpline services receive less than 0.1% of complaints against overall contact.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the telephone service on the UK Visas and Immigration general enquiry line.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Teleperformance are our commercial provider who deliver contact centre services on behalf of UKVI.
UKVI closely monitor the volumes of calls and emails received to the general enquiry lines and are able to increase the number of call agents deployed to support any increase in demand. UKVI works closely with the service provider to review performance and ensures that service standards are maintained.
Quality and complaint standards are regularly monitored to ensure that information given to customers is accurate, professional, consistent and of the highest quality.
To date, the helpline services receive less than 0.1% of complaints against overall contact.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the (a) Secretary of State for Education and (b) officials from local authorities in London on safeguarding provisions for people under 18 years old who live in asylum accommodation in hotels.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We take the safety and welfare of those in our care, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, extremely seriously. Home Office officials and our accommodation providers engage on a weekly basis with partners across London Boroughs as part of long-established engagement forums.
Alongside such multi-agency forums, officials also hold specific safeguarding discussions with statutory leads in boroughs covering individual cases of concern or more thematically. Officials in Home Office regularly have conversations regarding updates to published policy and guidance such as the Allocation of Asylum Accommodation policy and the AASC Accommodation Safeguarding Framework.
The recent Independent Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI)'s report on UASC accommodated in hotels notes that Home Office staff were clear on their commitment to safeguard the young people housed in hotels and had put in place processes and guidance in order to achieve this. The report found that the people working with young people were all “engaged, empathetic, supportive and enthused” about their work.
The ICIBI also said that the Home Office’s approach to addressing children’s mental health support reflected a “best practice approach”. The ICIBI found the young people in accommodation unanimously reported feeling safe, happy and were treated with respect.
No individuals, apart from the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, are residing at any of the hotels. All individuals working directly with the young people accommodated at the hotels have Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks, and all those working operating on the hotel sites have DBS clearance.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people aged under the age of 18 have been reported as missing from asylum hotels in (a) the London Borough of Hounslow and (b) London.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The safety and wellbeing of asylum seekers in our care is of paramount importance to the Home Office. We expect high standards from all of our providers, and we have a robust governance framework in place to manage service delivery of the Asylum Accommodation Support Contracts (AASC). Details of the AASC can be found at:
New asylum accommodation contracts awarded - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).
We have no power to detain unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in these hotels and we know some do go missing. Many of those who have gone missing are subsequently traced and located.
Children’s movements in and out of hotels are monitored and recorded and they are accompanied by support workers when attending organised activities and social excursions off-site, or where specific vulnerabilities are identified.
When a young person goes missing the ‘missing persons protocol’ is followed led by our directly engaged social workers. If a child who has gone missing is returned to the hotel, a follow up Multi Agency Stakeholder Forum (MASF) will be chaired by the LA (of the area the hotel is in) and a Social Worker at the hotel will complete a returns interview. They will then work with the child to understand the reasons for the absence.
The Home Office work around the clock with the police and local authorities to ensure the children in our care are safe and the Police are responsible for locating any missing children.
The Home Office does not hold data for the number of adult and children asylum seekers that were accommodated via the Home Office that are missing in a reportable format and it would require a manual search of records which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2022 to Question 75953, how many complaints were registered against Clearspring Ready Homes in each month between 01 December 2021 and 30 November 2022 in relation to that company's provision of accommodation for asylum seekers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We expect high standards from all of our providers under the terms of the Asylum Accommodation and Support Services contracts (AASC). We regularly engage with them to discuss any issues that arise and ensure best practise is always followed. Providers’ performance is monitored closely by dedicated staff in each contract area, who are in daily contact with them. Where performance falls short of the required standard, failures are recorded and can result in the award of points and, ultimately, service credits being applied.
This is supplemented by a formal governance process which includes quarterly Strategic Review Management Boards and monthly Contract Management Groups. Service credits and subsequent improvement plans are discussed and monitored as part of this process.
Asylum seekers can raise specific issues or concerns about their accommodation through the 24/7 Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE) service operated via Migrant Help. The AIRE contract has introduced a more independent and transparent oversight of standards through clearer complaints mechanisms for service users and supporting data that allows more intelligent targeting of performance improvement.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2022 to Question 84895 on Asylum: Housing, how many complaints were received by her Department about Clearspring Ready Homes; and if she will publish a breakdown of those complaints by category.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We expect high standards from all of our providers under the terms of the Asylum Accommodation and Support Services contracts (AASC). We regularly engage with them to discuss any issues that arise and ensure best practise is always followed. Providers’ performance is monitored closely by dedicated staff in each contract area, who are in daily contact with them. Where performance falls short of the required standard, failures are recorded and can result in the award of points and, ultimately, service credits being applied.
This is supplemented by a formal governance process which includes quarterly Strategic Review Management Boards and monthly Contract Management Groups. Service credits and subsequent improvement plans are discussed and monitored as part of this process.
Asylum seekers can raise specific issues or concerns about their accommodation through the 24/7 Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE) service operated via Migrant Help. The AIRE contract has introduced a more independent and transparent oversight of standards through clearer complaints mechanisms for service users and supporting data that allows more intelligent targeting of performance improvement.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2022 to Question 75953 on Asylum: Housing, if she will list the categories her Department used to record the nature of complaints on accommodation provided by Clearsprings Ready Homes.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Migrant Help do not categorise complaints, however if they are escalated to the department we use the following categorisations.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the required level of engagement with local authorities is on the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers under the contract between her Department and Clearsprings Ready Homes; and what steps her Department is taking to monitor this requirement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
All Asylum Accommodation and Support Services contracts must adhere to the Asylum Accommodation and Support Schedule Statement of Requirements. An Environmental Impact Assessment was completed at the time the contracts were agreed. The contracts have resulted in significant investment in the accommodation estate and its itinerary – improved facilities in Initial Accommodation, clear requirements on room sharing and greater inventory in Dispersal Accommodation
Asylum seekers can raise issues, provide feedback or make a complaint through Migrant Help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This service can be accessed by telephone, online webchat or in person at nominated sites. Migrant Help will then assign to the relevant party for response within strict contractual time frames. It is vital that individuals utilise this service to raise issues and complaints formally – this helps the department and our delivery partners to effectively identify areas for improvement and target provision enhancement activity to where it is needed most.
.All asylum properties are also inspected by our accommodation providers at least monthly. Additionally, our contract assurance team carries out targeted inspections, for example, targeting for inspection properties about which issues have been raised via Migrant Help. Our inspectors have procedures and tools to focus inspections on all relevant aspects of contract compliance. This investment is delivering benefits in assuring property management and standards.
If accommodation providers have been found to have fallen short of the required standards then we can take action, including but not limited to the application of financial remedies.
Details of the value of the contracts with Clearsprings Ready Homes are published on GOV.UK and can be found via the following links
Wales AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract Wales - Contracts Finder
South : AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract South - Contracts Finder
Engagement with local authorities around the use of sites is paramount to the work we are doing, and we will always aim to provide as much notice as possible of our intention to use sites. However, this isn’t always possible due to the urgent requirements we have at times including when dealing with large numbers of asylum seeker arrivals..
We offer regular and accurate communication with local officials through Multi agency forums. Amongst the other communication platforms available. We have a dedicated Engagement Team, to assist with any general concerns around sites and working together collaboratively.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the contract between her Department and Clearsprings Ready Homes for the provision of asylum accommodation, how often Clearsprings Ready Homes is required to report back to her Department on the quality of accommodation.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
All Asylum Accommodation and Support Services contracts must adhere to the Asylum Accommodation and Support Schedule Statement of Requirements. An Environmental Impact Assessment was completed at the time the contracts were agreed. The contracts have resulted in significant investment in the accommodation estate and its itinerary – improved facilities in Initial Accommodation, clear requirements on room sharing and greater inventory in Dispersal Accommodation
Asylum seekers can raise issues, provide feedback or make a complaint through Migrant Help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This service can be accessed by telephone, online webchat or in person at nominated sites. Migrant Help will then assign to the relevant party for response within strict contractual time frames. It is vital that individuals utilise this service to raise issues and complaints formally – this helps the department and our delivery partners to effectively identify areas for improvement and target provision enhancement activity to where it is needed most.
.All asylum properties are also inspected by our accommodation providers at least monthly. Additionally, our contract assurance team carries out targeted inspections, for example, targeting for inspection properties about which issues have been raised via Migrant Help. Our inspectors have procedures and tools to focus inspections on all relevant aspects of contract compliance. This investment is delivering benefits in assuring property management and standards.
If accommodation providers have been found to have fallen short of the required standards then we can take action, including but not limited to the application of financial remedies.
Details of the value of the contracts with Clearsprings Ready Homes are published on GOV.UK and can be found via the following links
Wales AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract Wales - Contracts Finder
South : AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract South - Contracts Finder
Engagement with local authorities around the use of sites is paramount to the work we are doing, and we will always aim to provide as much notice as possible of our intention to use sites. However, this isn’t always possible due to the urgent requirements we have at times including when dealing with large numbers of asylum seeker arrivals..
We offer regular and accurate communication with local officials through Multi agency forums. Amongst the other communication platforms available. We have a dedicated Engagement Team, to assist with any general concerns around sites and working together collaboratively.