Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which websites detainees in each immigration detention centre are blocked from accessing.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The details of individual blocked websites are not held centrally and could
only be obtained by examination of information held at each immigration removal
centre (IRC) at disproportionate cost.
Internet access is not standardised across all IRCs although a review of access
is being undertaken to address this.
Suppliers operating IRCs on behalf of the Home Office use specialised software
which screens out prohibited categories of sites or sites whose addresses
contain prohibited key words rather than blocking individual website addresses.
Prohibited categories are based on safety and security concerns, for example
potential terrorist or pornographic sites.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the appropriateness of the current number of female officers in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Home Office and its service providers comply with all relevant employment
legislation. The service provider for Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre,
Serco, is required under their contract to employ sufficient female officers to
enable appropriate searching and security arrangements for female detainees.
Yarl's Wood IRC has 52% male detainee custody officers and 48% female.
Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork (ACDT) is the system used for
monitoring individuals considered to be at risk of self harm and operates
within the broader context of decency, safety, and the concept of a healthy
centre.
ACDT requires centre managers to appoint trained assessors and named case
managers in order to provide individualised care to detainees based on their
particular needs. A female assessor or case manager should be appointed where
it is appropriate but that is not a requirement.
Feminine hygiene items are freely available to residents. Access to these is
not monitored by staff.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that women in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre on suicide watch are only supervised by female officers.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Home Office and its service providers comply with all relevant employment
legislation. The service provider for Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre,
Serco, is required under their contract to employ sufficient female officers to
enable appropriate searching and security arrangements for female detainees.
Yarl's Wood IRC has 52% male detainee custody officers and 48% female.
Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork (ACDT) is the system used for
monitoring individuals considered to be at risk of self harm and operates
within the broader context of decency, safety, and the concept of a healthy
centre.
ACDT requires centre managers to appoint trained assessors and named case
managers in order to provide individualised care to detainees based on their
particular needs. A female assessor or case manager should be appointed where
it is appropriate but that is not a requirement.
Feminine hygiene items are freely available to residents. Access to these is
not monitored by staff.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that women detained in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre can obtain feminine hygiene products without contact with male guards.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Home Office and its service providers comply with all relevant employment
legislation. The service provider for Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre,
Serco, is required under their contract to employ sufficient female officers to
enable appropriate searching and security arrangements for female detainees.
Yarl's Wood IRC has 52% male detainee custody officers and 48% female.
Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork (ACDT) is the system used for
monitoring individuals considered to be at risk of self harm and operates
within the broader context of decency, safety, and the concept of a healthy
centre.
ACDT requires centre managers to appoint trained assessors and named case
managers in order to provide individualised care to detainees based on their
particular needs. A female assessor or case manager should be appointed where
it is appropriate but that is not a requirement.
Feminine hygiene items are freely available to residents. Access to these is
not monitored by staff.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she intends to make a decision on the request to authorise water cannon for use by the police in England and Wales; and if she will place in the Library a copy of the advice and business case she has received on the use of water cannon in mainland UK.
Answered by Damian Green
I refer my Hon. Friend to my answer of 12 May 2014, Official Report, column
412W.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, Investigation into the Establishment of the Performance and Compliance Unit, published in May 2013, what steps have been taken in response to recommendation 1 of that report.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Following the reorganisations which flowed from the decision to bring the
functions of the UK Border Agency back into direct ministerial control, the
Performance and Compliance Unit no longer exists.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, Inspection into the Handling of Asylum Applications made by Unaccompanied Children, published in October 2013, what steps have been taken in response to recommendations 1, 3, 4 and 8 of that report.
Answered by James Brokenshire
In response to recommendation 1, a clear and consistent approach has been
adopted. A pilot was run shortly after the inspection that led to the adoption
of a new screening process for unaccompanied children; this has led to
increased consistency between the Home Office and local authorities. All
initial screenings take place within five days of initial claim. Local
Authorities are clearly responsible for facilitating the access to legal advice
and responsible adults prior to the screening interview.
In response to recommendation 3, this guidance and policy has been reinforced
locally. The Asylum Casework Directorate has implemented new structures that
offer better technical support for promoting and monitoring family tracing.
This guidance has been reinforced locally in all teams through the creation of
specialised family and minors teams in each regional location. Work is
ongoing with the Foreign Office on new family tracing arrangements for volume
UASC nationalities (Albanian and Afghan) that should help to expedite the
tracing process in these countries. The practicality of specialised teams
will be reviewed once all decision units are fully staffed.
In response to recommendation 4, the move to a single national directorate has
led to greater consistency and control of asylum case work. This has helped to
address the consistency of operations and outcomes in each of the seven
casework locations. Customer service standards have been reviewed with the
expectation that straightforward claims can expect to receive their decision
within six months. Unaccompanied children should receive their decisions
quicker than that.
In response to recommendation 8, as part of the ongoing continuous improvement
programme decision letters have been reviewed and changed. Templates are now
clearer, more concise and customer friendly. This new approach to producing
more concise grant letters and minutes has been implemented whilst a pilot
regarding refusal letters is underway.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, Inspection of the UK Border Agency's handling of legacy asylum and migration cases, published in November 2012, what steps have been taken in response to recommendation 1 of that report.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Older Live Cases Unit routinely and regularly matches asylum and migration
legacy cases against the Police National Computer (PNC) and Warnings Index (WI)
records, until the point at which cases are finally concluded. The checks are
undertaken on a rolling three monthly basis. Results are recorded on a bespoke
database which informs the decision making process within the Older Live Cases
Unit.
Compliance with the recommendation was acknowledged by the Independent Chief
Inspector of Borders and Immigration in his report, An investigation into the
progress made on legacy asylum and migration cases January – March 2013,
published in June 2013, where he stated, "security checks had been completed
in each of the cases we sampled (144), indicating that the Agency had
implemented our earlier recommendation to routinely and regularly
match legacy cases against the PNC and WI until finally concluded."
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the residence test for civil legal aid with Article 16 of the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
We believe that in principle, individuals should have a strong connection to the UK in order to benefit from the civil legal aid scheme. We therefore intend to introduce a residence test for civil legal aid requiring applicants to be lawfully resident in the UK, Crown Dependencies or British Overseas Territories at the time they apply for civil legal aid and have resided there lawfully for at least 12 continuous months in the past.
We are satisfied that the residence test is fully compatible with our domestic and international legal obligations, including the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are currently detained for immigration purposes at HM Prison The Verne.
Answered by James Brokenshire
As at 3 June 2014 there were 790 detainees held in prison establishments solely under immigration powers, of whom 174 were held in HMP The Verne.