Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve turnaround time and service at HM Passport Office.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Ahead of unrestricted international travel returning, HM Passport Office prepared extensively to serve an unprecedented number of customers, with 9.5 million British passport applications forecasted throughout 2022.
These preparations have ensured passport applications can be processed in higher numbers than ever before. This was demonstrated in March 2022 when HM Passport Office achieved a record monthly high by completing the processing of over one million applications, and 98.6% of applications completed within the 10 week standard timeframe according to most recent stats.
Ministers continue to meet regularly with officials to monitor performance, and to explore further options which will help to ensure people receive their passports in good time.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to improve her Department's response times to enquiries from hon. Members.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Performance has been impacted by a very significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan and more recently in Ukraine.
The Department recognises it has not been able to meet service standard in some cases, but has implemented an action plan to clear backlogs and drive-up performance.
Data about intake and performance in answering Hon. Members correspondence are published quarterly with the latest Quarter available at: Customer service operations data: Q4 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Homes for Ukraine scheme, how many visa applications, made by groups with both adults and children included in them, are currently outstanding as a result of being held up by one or more of the applications made on behalf of any children in that group.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on processing applications to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Over 15,000 people were supported to come to the UK directly following the evacuation of Afghanistan, and a further 2,000 have since arrived. The Home Office will publish the number of people being offered protection under UK Resettlement programmes in its quarterly Immigration Statistics. The next publication will be in May 2022.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Biometric Residence Permit cards were issued within the seven to ten day service standard set by her Department once confirmation had been given to the applicant that they could remain in the UK between January and March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We aim for all BRP’s to be delivered within 7 working days of the immigration decision being made.
BRPs are produced by the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) within 48 hours of the decision being made and are collected by our secure delivery partner FedEx the same day. FedEx aims to attempt to deliver the BRPs within 48 hours of receipt. This equates to a minimum of 5 working days from date of decision to delivery of the BRP. We have added an additional 2 working days to the timeline advised to applicants to allow us to resolve any production issues.
Between January and March 2022, DVLA produced all BRPs within 48 hours of the production request, of which 88.2% were produced within 24 hours. FedEx then attempted to deliver 99.74% of BRPs within the following 48 hours, during this period.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to prevent an individual who has been identified for deportation to Rwanda under the recently announced asylum seeker scheme from absconding.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The UK is funding the processing costs for each individual who is relocated to Rwanda. Every person’s needs are different, but we anticipate the amount would be comparable to processing costs incurred in the UK.
As this is a long-term partnership over five years, payments will depend on the outcomes delivered including the number of people relocated. Funding is only provided while a person remains in Rwanda.
We are aware of the risk that people might seek to abscond. Individuals may be placed in an Immigration Removal Centre prior to their transfer.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the cost of deporting an individual to Rwanda under her recently announced asylum seeker scheme.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The UK is funding the processing costs for each individual who is relocated to Rwanda. Every person’s needs are different, but we anticipate the amount would be comparable to processing costs incurred in the UK.
As this is a long-term partnership over five years, payments will depend on the outcomes delivered including the number of people relocated. Funding is only provided while a person remains in Rwanda.
We are aware of the risk that people might seek to abscond. Individuals may be placed in an Immigration Removal Centre prior to their transfer.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many shoplifting offences have been recorded by the police in each year since 2014.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The number of shoplifting offences recorded by the police forces in England and Wales in each year is presented in the table below.
Shoplifting Offences | Shoplifting |
2014 | 325,373 |
2015 | 333,567 |
2016 | 359,245 |
2017 | 385,882 |
2018 | 375,630 |
2019 | 367,102 |
2020 | 258,960 |
January 2021 to September 2021 | 186,271 |
The number of shoplifting offences recorded by the police forces in England and Wales in each year is published on the Home Office website at
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made on the number of suspicious deaths following falls from residential buildings in the last 10 years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office collects information on the number of homicide offences recorded by the police in England and Wales. Information is not collected on suspicious deaths that do not result in the recording of a homicide offence.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
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 temporarily employing staff at the weekend to ensure that applications to the Homes for Ukraine scheme are processed as quickly as possible.
Answered by Kevin Foster
UKVI has already redeployed caseworking staff in the UK to work seven days a week to process Ukraine applications, and has temporarily loaned in staff from other departments like HM Revenue and Customs to help manage demand. Overtime opportunities are also available for weekend working.