Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued on (a) the use of and (b) access to the central database on which information on Prevent referrals is stored.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information and guidance on the use of, and access to, the central Prevent referral database is owned by the Police and not by the Home Office. We do not hold this information centrally.
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Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions (a) she and (b) officials in her Department have had with counterparts in the Department for Health and Social Care on ensuring the integration of Prevent as a safeguarding duty in the NHS with minimal disturbance to the provision of healthcare.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Prevent Duty has been in place since 2015. All staff working in NHS Trusts in England and Wales have a legal obligation to safeguard against radicalisation and report concerns via a Prevent referral.
The Department for Health and Social Care funds a network of 7 NHS England Regional Serious Violence and Contextual Safeguarding Leads, who provide healthcare specific advice to all NHS organisations within their region on integrating Prevent into their safeguarding practices. The Home Office works closely with this network and with DHSC to support the delivery of the Prevent Duty within the healthcare system.
The responsibilities for safeguarding form part of the core functions for all NHS organisations. Prevent is embedded within safeguarding in the NHS, ensuring the duties of safeguarding children, young people, and adults at risk are applied consistently and conscientiously and with over 300,000 patient contacts every day, the NHS has an important role to play in preventing vulnerable people from being drawn into terrorism.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what equality impact assessment her Department has carried out on the Prevent strategy.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office has conducted Equality Impact Analysis (EIA) on the CONTEST strategy 2018 which includes Prevent.
We have also carried out additional EIAs for various strands of work within the Prevent programme in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of member of the Channel panel have been (a) Black, (b) Muslim, (a) from other minority ethnic backgrounds and (d) female.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not hold information on the proportion of Channel Panel members who are a) Black, b) Muslim, c) from other minority ethnic backgrounds and d) female.
Channel Panels are run by the Local Authority they sit in, and information on their composition is not held centrally.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Hong Kong have successfully taken up a British National (Overseas) visa since that visa scheme was introduced.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on how many visas for the Hong Kong BN(O) route have been granted between 31 January and 31 March was published in the quarterly migration statistics release on 27 May and can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the number of overseas health workers who have been refunded the Immigration Health Surcharge since the Prime Minister announced that policy in May 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Since the Prime Minister’s announcement last year, the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care have worked together continuously to ensure overseas health workers are refunded the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to extend the eligibility of the Hong Kong British National Overseas visa scheme to pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong who were born after 1997.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Hong Kong British National (Overseas) (BN(O) route opens for applications from 31 January 2021.
We recognise children of BN(O) status holders born on or after 1 July 1997 may not have had the opportunity to be registered as BN(O) status holders. We do not wish to split family units and therefore the children of a BN(O) status holder who fall into this category who form part of the same household will be able to apply for this route with their BN(O) parent. We do not currently have any plans to change these requirements.
Individuals born after 1 July 1997, who no longer live with their BN(O) parents, can consider the other UK immigration routes available, these include the Student, Family and Skilled Worker routes. The new Skilled Worker route enables individuals to come to the UK in a much wider range of roles and at a lower general salary threshold than under the previous visa it replaced.
There is also our existing youth mobility scheme with Hong Kong which is open to those aged between 18 and 30 and offers a two-year grant of leave in the UK. There are 1000 places currently available each year.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of introducing a New Zealand-style managed isolation and quarantine system at the border during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Government discussions on the most appropriate response to COVID-19 are ongoing and evolve in line with developments and assessments. Measures at the Border are a continuous topic of discussion during meetings between Cabinet colleagues; and the Government will continue to announce policy developments at the appropriate stage.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the Government has made on the introduction of the Hong Kong British National Overseas visa scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Hong Kong British National (Overseas) (BN(O) route opens for applications from 31 January 2021.
Guidance for BN(O) citizens will be kept updated on GOV.UK:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hong-kong-british-national-overseas-visa-applications
Further details of this new immigration route will be published in due course.
This government looks forward to realising its commitments to BN(O) citizens and their family members and receiving applications for the Hong Kong BN(O) route in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional resources her Department has allocated to Bedfordshire Police for the enforcement of covid-19 regulations.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has been clear that it will provide police forces with the support they need to continue protecting the public and keeping communities safe through the coronavirus pandemic.
In October 2020, the Government announced an additional £30m funding for police forces in England and Wales to step up their enforcement of coronavirus rules. Bedfordshire Police has received £ 270,485 from this additional funding.
The department continues to work closely with the policing sector to monitor and make decisions on their current and future needs.