Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to issue guidance to (a) HSBC and (b) other UK-based pension providers on acceptance of a British National Overseas passport as a valid document for accessing the pension assets of Hong Kongers who have moved to the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We are aware of the difficulties British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status holders are experiencing in seeking early withdrawal of their pension held by the Mandatory Provident Fund in Hong Kong. The root of the problem is the Chinese Government's decision not to recognise the BN(O) passport as a valid identity document in Hong Kong. The UK firmly opposes the discrimination of BN(O)s in this way. We have urged the Hong Kong authorities to facilitate the early drawdown of funds as is the case for other Hong Kong residents who move overseas permanently.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications have been made for British National (Overseas) visas by people aged between 18 and 25 in the period since that scheme was extended in November 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not hold published data on the number of applications that have been made to the British National (Overseas) route by18–25-year-olds since the route was expanded on 30 November 2022.
The Home Office releases data on the BN(O) route as part of the quarterly migration statistics.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for asylum applications made by people from Hong Kong from the initial claim to the outcome in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
This data for average processing times is not held in a reportable format, not routinely published, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it requires a manual search through individual records.
The Home Office does publish data on the number of asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by duration, for main applicants only. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:
List of tables - GOV.UK
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1118222/asylum-summary-sep-2022-tables.ods
Further detailed asylum and resettlement data sets, filtered by nationality can be found:
List of tables - GOV.UK
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect people from Hong Kong who want to protest near the Chinese Embassy and Consulate in the UK.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights set out that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, assembly and association. This government will support these rights, including the right of individuals to engage in peaceful protest.
It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to gather together and to demonstrate their views, provided that they do so within the law.
The management of demonstrations is an operational matter for the police. In certain circumstances, the police have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect those who want to exercise their rights peacefully.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support victims of fraud.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government takes the issue of fraud very seriously and is dedicated to protecting the public from this devastating crime.
We are working to improve the victim support system to ensure everyone receives the support and advice they need to feel safe again and to prevent revictimisation.
Raising awareness and safeguarding victims will form a key pillar of the Government’s forthcoming fraud strategy.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to make clear that investment in a firm that profits from the legal overseas recreational cannabis market should fall within the scope of the Proceedings of Crime Act 2002; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Decisions on investments are a matter for those investing, and they must obtain their own legal advice.
There is no current intention to bring forward additional legislation and therefore no intention to make a statement.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with (a) her counterparts in the EU and (b) airline companies on the validity for travel of UK passports with less than six months remaining until their expiry date, following the UK’s departure from the EU.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Engagement with foreign authorities on the acceptability of UK travel documents is a matter for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Engagement with airlines and other carriers on the acceptability of UK travel documents is a matter for the Department for Transport.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on implementing the objectives of the Safer Street Fund.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government invested £70 million over the first three rounds of the Safer Streets Fund to support 159 high crime areas across England and Wales implement local crime prevention initiatives. A further £150 million is due to be invested over the next three years, bringing total investment to £210 million.
Targeted interventions such as improved street lighting and home security aim to drive down crime and there is strong evidence that they can prevent offences ever happening. Since its inception, the Fund has been expanded to cover violence against women and girls and anti-social behaviour as well as neighbourhood crime. Round Four of the Fund launched in March and closed for bidding on 13 May and we plan to announce the outcome shortly.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ease the visa application and subsequent refugee paperwork for Ukrainians who do not speak English to help them navigate the UK system at the Ukraine border.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is continually making efforts to simplify the application process for Ukrainian refugees, and keeps this under regular review.
Furthermore. the webpage for the Ukrainian Family scheme (which can be found here: Apply for a Ukraine Family Scheme visa - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) is available in English, Russian and Ukrainian so that applicants can better navigate the form.
Asked by: Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the average length of time taken to issue biometric residence permit cards to Turkish citizens living in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Data is not available broken down by nationality in relation to Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) production and delivery times.
Data is published relating to performance against decision making service standards for each application route and can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q1-2021
UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) advise applicants they can expect delivery of their Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) within 10 working days of receiving their decision notification.
BRPs are produced on behalf of UKVI by the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA). DVLA have a service level agreement to complete 90% of production requests within one working day and the remaining 10% within two working days. For quarter one of financial year 2021/22 they achieved 85.1% (218,527) within 24 hours and 100% (256,730) within 48 hours. 2.1% (19,250) took longer than 48 hours.
FedEx took over the BRP delivery contract from DX in February 2020, after a bedding in period formal reporting started in July 2020. Between 1 July 2020 and 31 March 2021 FedEx attempted to deliver 99.2% of BRPs within 48 hours of collection from DVLA, against a target to attempt delivery within 48 hours of collection for 99% of BRP packages.