Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she is taking to ensure that EU citizens living in the UK apply for settled status by 31 January 2020.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The EU Settlement scheme is free, there is plenty of support for applicants and EU citizens have until the end of June 2021 to apply.
The latest published information shows that more than 2.7 million (2,756,100) EU Settlement Scheme applications had been received up to 31 December 2019. The latest figures can be found in the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme monthly statistics’ available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-december-2019
In order to ensure that resident EEA nationals and their family members understand how and by when to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, the Home Office has put in place a comprehensive communications and engagement plan, using all available channels to reach our audiences – such as marketing, presentations, email updates, toolkits and webinars.
The Home Office has delivered a £4 million marketing campaign to encourage resident EEA nationals to apply and further campaign activity is planned. Alongside this campaign activity, we have also undertaken extensive engagement and outreach with stakeholder groups, including employers, local authorities and community organisations. No-one will be left behind, which is why we are working in partnership with representatives of vulnerable groups and other experts to make sure everyone knows what they need to do and has the right level of support.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she is making on the recruitment of new frontline police officers in the West Midlands.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In October 2019 Home Office confirmed officer allocations for every force in England and Wales in the first year of the uplift. The Home Office is working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to support all forces deliver these allocations.
West Midlands Police has been allocated 366 officers in year 1 of the uplift.
The Home Office publishes the statistical series 'Police workforce, England and Wales' on a biannual basis. The next publication is scheduled for release on Thursday 30 January and will contain information on the number of officers in post as at 30 September 2019. Data on joiners and leavers are published annually, in the July release of the bulletin, which covers the situation as at 31 March.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/home-office-announces-first-wave-of-20000-police-officer-uplift
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the equity of the fee structure for applying to become a UK citizen for people who have been (a) born and (b) raised in the UK.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
An assessment of the impact of all border, immigration and citizenship (BIC) fees was published as an associated document to the Immigration and
Nationality Fees (Regulations) 2018. Whilst the assessment doesn’t focus on
affordability, which would be a very subjective matter, it does include
estimates of price elasticity. Policy Equality Statements are prepared alongside proposed fee changes.
The relevant information can be found via the following link:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2018/59/pdfs/ukia_20180059_en.pdf
Additionally, the Home Office keeps its fees for immigration and nationality under regular review and changes to individual charges need to be made with a view to maintaining the overall purpose of the fees and charging legislation.
The Home Office constantly strives to achieve the right balance between ensuring that individuals are able to obtain status in the UK and access appropriate services, without adding burden to the taxpayer.
Applying for British nationality is not mandatory and many individuals who have settlement/ indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status choose not to apply. This is because, in addition to lawful permanent residence in the UK, a person with indefinite leave to remain has full access to the UK labour market, education, healthcare and the ability to sponsor family members’ residence in the UK.
The Home Office also provides for exceptions to the need to pay application fees for limited and indefinite leave to remain, in a number of specific
circumstances. These exceptions ensure that the Home Office’s immigration and nationality fee structure complies with international obligations, including in relation to refugees and persons deriving rights under the ECHR and wider government policy and the protection of vulnerable children, such as those in Local Authority (LA) care.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he has taken to ensure that a person eligible to apply for UK citizenship is not prevented from doing so as a result of the fee structure.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
An assessment of the impact of all border, immigration and citizenship (BIC) fees was published as an associated document to the Immigration and
Nationality Fees (Regulations) 2018. Whilst the assessment doesn’t focus on
affordability, which would be a very subjective matter, it does include
estimates of price elasticity. Policy Equality Statements are prepared alongside proposed fee changes.
The relevant information can be found via the following link:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2018/59/pdfs/ukia_20180059_en.pdf
Additionally, the Home Office keeps its fees for immigration and nationality under regular review and changes to individual charges need to be made with a view to maintaining the overall purpose of the fees and charging legislation.
The Home Office constantly strives to achieve the right balance between ensuring that individuals are able to obtain status in the UK and access appropriate services, without adding burden to the taxpayer.
Applying for British nationality is not mandatory and many individuals who have settlement/ indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status choose not to apply. This is because, in addition to lawful permanent residence in the UK, a person with indefinite leave to remain has full access to the UK labour market, education, healthcare and the ability to sponsor family members’ residence in the UK.
The Home Office also provides for exceptions to the need to pay application fees for limited and indefinite leave to remain, in a number of specific
circumstances. These exceptions ensure that the Home Office’s immigration and nationality fee structure complies with international obligations, including in relation to refugees and persons deriving rights under the ECHR and wider government policy and the protection of vulnerable children, such as those in Local Authority (LA) care.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to increase funding for West Midlands Police to tackle violent crime.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government is determined to do everything it can to tackle knife crime and break the deadly cycle of violence that devastates the lives of victims, families and communities.
We are taking action to address these increases on a number of fronts in support of our Serious Violence Strategy. This includes providing the police with the powers and resources they need to take effective action in all areas of the country. Through the Offensive Weapons Act we are tightening the law in relation to knives, including making it an offence to possess certain offensive weapons in private, and stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online unless the seller has arrangements with a delivery company to verify age. We are also introducing new Knife Crime Prevention Orders, requested by the police to help them to tackle young people who are on the cusp of serious violence, to help them make more positive lifestyle choices. We also continue to support the police national weeks of action against knife crime under Operation Sceptre.
The police funding settlement provides the police with the biggest increase in funding since 2010, and in addition we are providing the additional £100 million to tackle serious violence announced in the Spring Statement on 13 March, which includes £80m of new funding from the Treasury. £63.4 million of this funding has already been allocated to 18 police forces most affected by serious violence to pay for surge operational activity, including increased patrols, and £1.6 million to help improve the quality of data on serious violence, particularly knife crime, to support planning and operations. West Midlands has been allocated £7.62m from this fund. A full list of the forces and the funding they have received from the serious violence fund is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/police-granted-funding-boost-for-action-on-serious-violence.
The remaining £35m from the Serious Violence Fund will be invested in Violence Reduction Units, which will support the local response in a number of areas worst affected by serious violence. VRUs will bring together a range of agencies including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach to preventing serious violence altogether. We are working closely with local partners to develop proposals for Violence Reduction Units, and will be seeking to make announcements on this funding in early June.
We are also raising awareness among young people of the dangers of carrying a knife through our national media campaign - #knifefree – and supporting early intervention through the £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund, which is already supporting 29 local projects, including around £2m allocated to the Police and Crime Commissioner in the West Midlands to target young people identified as being most at risk, particularly those at risk of exclusion from school, and those already engaged in crime and violence.
We have also introduced the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, which will be delivered over the next 10 years to support interventions with children and young people at risk of involvement in crime and violence, focusing on those most at risk. The charity Impetus, working in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation and Social Investment Business, is now operating the Fund.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the letter from the Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood, MIN/0014431/18, for what reason his Department is unable to obtain statistics from the Police National Computer on the number of person records relating to non-charge or conviction action by (a) force and (b) race.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Police National Computer is over 40 years old and was not designed to create management information of the type sought in this question. It is being replaced by the Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS) which is being designed to provide significantly enhanced management information.