Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2016 to Question 31677, what the average salary is of people awarded Tier 2 (ICT) visas to work in the IT industry; and how many such visas have been awarded in each pay band in each of the last three years.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Home Office does not hold this information in the format requested.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2016 Question 31677, how many Tier 2 (ICT) visa applications were denied because the Certificate of Sponsorship does not specify a salary of at least £28,400 in the last three years.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Home Office does not hold this information in the format requested.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2016 to Question 31677, what checks are undertaken to ensure that the terms of a Tier 2 (ICT) visa Certificate of Sponsorship are adhered to.
Answered by Mike Penning
A variety of checks are undertaken on sponsor licence holders and the migrants they assign certificates of sponsorship to. Compliance visits are undertaken during the licensing process and post-licensing audits are undertaken to verify the duties performed by the sponsored workers adhere to those set out by the sponsor in the certificate of sponsorship. Officers can request payslips, work contracts and evidence of duties performed by the sponsored worker during compliance visits. In some cases, other regulatory requirements are verified with other government departments or regulatory bodies during investigations of possible non-compliance. Officers can interview both sponsors and sponsored workers during compliance visits to seek assurances and gather information and evidence of compliance with the duties of sponsorship. Overseas we can undertake checks in to the credibility of the international presence of an ICT sponsor licence holder where there is concern to do so.
All roles are assessed to confirm the duties and salary meet the requirements set out in the standard occupation classification codes. The sponsored worker may also be called for interview during the visa consideration process to check their credibility and test the individual meets the requirements of sponsorship under Tier 2 (ICT).
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2016 to Question 31677, what the penalties are for an employer who has issued a Certificate of Sponsorship but does not adhere to the stated job description and salary.
Answered by Mike Penning
Guidance for sponsors specifies that UKVI will revoke the licence of a sponsor who has issued a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) but has not adhered to the specified job description and/or salary. However, prior to the consideration of revocation action, UKVI will suspend the licence and allow the sponsor the opportunity to make representations against the matter(s) identified. UKVI does have residual discretion to apply a lesser sanctions depending on the severity of the matter(s) and the mitigating circumstances presented by the sponsor; these sanctions include downgrading the licence rating and issuing a time limited action plan or reducing the sponsor’s CoS allocation or setting the allocation to zero.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which companies have been issued with more than 50 Tier 2 (ICT) visas in a calendar year for each of the last five years; and how many visas for each such company were issued.
Answered by James Brokenshire
A list of the sponsors that have assigned more than 50 Tier 2 (ICT) Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) in a calendar year for each of the last five years, which also provides the figures of how many of those CoS were used in support of an individual Tier 2 (ICT) application, are to be placed in the House Library.
To break these figures down further into in and out of country applications, and whether the application was successful would require manual intervention and would exceed cost limits.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether there is a limit on the number of Tier 2 (ICT) visas a company can apply for each year.
Answered by James Brokenshire
A Tier 2 (Intra company transfer) certificate of sponsorship (CoS) issued by a Tier 2 (ICT) licensed company is required for a migrant worker to be granted a Tier 2 (ICT) visa. There is no limit to the number of Tier 2 (ICT) CoS that a company can apply for each year. When applying for a sponsor licence the company must tell UKVI how many CoS they may need to the end of the financial year and justify why they need them.
Licensed companies with a proven history of compliance are automatically allocated the same number of CoS they used in the previous financial year. All other sponsors must request CoS each financial year and justify why they are needed. Additional CoS can be requested at any time by all licensed sponsors.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what examination of job roles her Department undertakes when issuing Tier 2 (ICT) visas.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Each application for a Tier 2 (ICT) visa must be accompanied by a certificate of sponsorship (COS) issued by the applicant’s sponsor. The COS will set out the job description and the job role the applicant is required to perform, as well as the salary they will be paid and the hours of work they will undertake. The Secretary of State will examine the information on the COS against the codes of practice for skilled workers to ensure the criteria under the Tier 2 (ICT) arrangements are met. The codes of practice set out the relevant skill level and minimum rates of pay that apply to any job.
The Secretary of State may also consider whether the application meets the genuine vacancy requirements set out in the Immigration Rules. This assessment is to satisfy that the information in the certificate of sponsorship has not been tailored specifically to meet the requirements of the Tier 2 criteria.
Entry Clearance Officers within visa sections overseas also have the discretion to conduct additional assessments should they have concerns about specific sponsors. Further compliance checks are carried out after the visa has been issued during compliance visits to ensure roles are genuine and meet the appropriate skill level for sponsorship. Compliance officers routinely assess the credibility of the job roles and collect evidence that the duties of sponsored migrants are in accordance with those stated by the sponsor in the certificates of sponsorship.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many dedicated Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) police officers transferred to the National Crime Agency in 2013; and how many police officers are in the CEOP Command in 2016.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Although NCA officers can be designated with the Powers of a Constable (and other powers), NCA officers are not police officers, nor were the SOCA officers that formed the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. When the NCA was launched on 7 October 2013, 99 posts were transferred into the NCA from the SOCA-affiliated Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. The NCA CEOP Command currently has 129 core posts.
At the WePROTECT Children Online Global Summit in December 2014, the Prime Minister announced an additional £10m would be provided in 2015/16 to create further specialist teams in the National Crime Agency to focus on the worst online child sexual exploitation and abuse offenders. This funding is enabling the National Crime Agency to target more offenders, strengthen victim identification and create additional intelligence and child protection advisor capabilities. This has included 174 additional posts (an increase on the 168 new posts envisaged when the NCA Annual Report and accounts were published last year). These 174 posts, are in addition to the NCA’s core posts and are all dedicated to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse, within the CEOP Command and supporting functions.
Specific funding for NCA investigations into non-recent child sexual abuse is provided through alternative arrangements. All of the National Crime Agency commands contribute to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse. NCA commands work collaboratively and are supported by specialist capabilities drawn from across the Agency.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the 168 posts advertised for the National Crime Agency in 2015 were allocated to Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Although NCA officers can be designated with the Powers of a Constable (and other powers), NCA officers are not police officers, nor were the SOCA officers that formed the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. When the NCA was launched on 7 October 2013, 99 posts were transferred into the NCA from the SOCA-affiliated Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. The NCA CEOP Command currently has 129 core posts.
At the WePROTECT Children Online Global Summit in December 2014, the Prime Minister announced an additional £10m would be provided in 2015/16 to create further specialist teams in the National Crime Agency to focus on the worst online child sexual exploitation and abuse offenders. This funding is enabling the National Crime Agency to target more offenders, strengthen victim identification and create additional intelligence and child protection advisor capabilities. This has included 174 additional posts (an increase on the 168 new posts envisaged when the NCA Annual Report and accounts were published last year). These 174 posts, are in addition to the NCA’s core posts and are all dedicated to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse, within the CEOP Command and supporting functions.
Specific funding for NCA investigations into non-recent child sexual abuse is provided through alternative arrangements. All of the National Crime Agency commands contribute to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse. NCA commands work collaboratively and are supported by specialist capabilities drawn from across the Agency.
Asked by: Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much of the £10 million allocated to the National Crime Agency to address child sexual exploitation is applied to investigations of historic child sexual abuse.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Although NCA officers can be designated with the Powers of a Constable (and other powers), NCA officers are not police officers, nor were the SOCA officers that formed the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. When the NCA was launched on 7 October 2013, 99 posts were transferred into the NCA from the SOCA-affiliated Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. The NCA CEOP Command currently has 129 core posts.
At the WePROTECT Children Online Global Summit in December 2014, the Prime Minister announced an additional £10m would be provided in 2015/16 to create further specialist teams in the National Crime Agency to focus on the worst online child sexual exploitation and abuse offenders. This funding is enabling the National Crime Agency to target more offenders, strengthen victim identification and create additional intelligence and child protection advisor capabilities. This has included 174 additional posts (an increase on the 168 new posts envisaged when the NCA Annual Report and accounts were published last year). These 174 posts, are in addition to the NCA’s core posts and are all dedicated to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse, within the CEOP Command and supporting functions.
Specific funding for NCA investigations into non-recent child sexual abuse is provided through alternative arrangements. All of the National Crime Agency commands contribute to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse. NCA commands work collaboratively and are supported by specialist capabilities drawn from across the Agency.