Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what incentives her Department has put in place to increase the diversity of local police officers.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Policing remains an attractive and well-paid career, with a pension that is among the best available.
Every force should be striving to become representative of the communities it serves. We have been clear that the uplift in officers is a once in generation opportunity to improve diversity. We are supporting forces with a variety of attraction and recruitment strategies, whilst delivering a campaign that’s been designed to reach the widest and most diverse audience possible.
Some forces have made significant improvements in the rate of black, Asian and minority ethnic joiners through successful positive action measures. Information is available on police.uk that shows the ethnicity and gender representation for each police force compared to local force area populations. This allows the public to hold forces to account.
The Government has also supported innovative schemes, such as Police Now, which are making the police workforce more diverse than ever before; showing that we can attract the brightest and best into policing, whilst introducing new perspectives from some of the country’s most challenging neighbourhoods.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the remit is of the Government's review of the restrictions on asylum seekers' right to work; and when the Government plans to publish the outcome of that review.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asylum seeker right to work is a complex issue. A review of the policy is ongoing, and we are considering the evidence put forward on the issue. The findings of the review will be announced once the work has been completed. |
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to restart refugee resettlement schemes.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Due to coronavirus (COVID-19) related restrictions and pressures, both overseas and in the UK, resettlement activity is currently paused. We continue to evaluate how to respond given these restrictions and pressures, but we expect to resume refugee resettlement activity when safe to do so.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional financial and other support she is putting in place to ensure that UK Visas and Immigration office staff are able to process all inquiries promptly.
Answered by Kevin Foster
There are a variety of measures in place to ensure that UK Visas and Immigration office staff are able to process MP enquiries promptly.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic a dedicated telephone and email enquiry line has been created to ensure customers can get access to necessary information quickly. All calls are monitored and themes drawn out to ensure insight is feedback into the system, supporting staff to answer queries accurately and promptly.
UKVI has also maintained and proactively updated the gov.uk help pages to help aid self-serve to ensure more queries can be resolved without needing to directly contact the Home Office.
Performance against service standards in dealing with inquiries is regularly monitored and the Home Office will take further steps if necessary to ensure they are maintained.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support communities in tackling anti-social behaviour (a) during and (b) following the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to anti-social behaviour. These powers and tools continue to be applicable during this period.
The powers in the 2014 Act are local in nature, and it is for local agencies to determine whether their use is appropriate in the specific circumstances as they are best-placed to understand the needs of their community and the most appropriate response.
The 2014 Act also introduced specific measures designed to give victims and communities a say in the way that complaints of anti-social behavior are dealt with. This includes the Community Trigger, which gives victims of persistent ASB the ability to ask for a formal case review.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made on compensating victims of the Windrush scandal; and what the deadline is for applications to the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Priti Patel
The latest set of data relating to the Windrush Compensation Scheme (WCS) was published on 27 August and is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-compensation-scheme-data-august-2020. This covers data up until the end of July 2020.
These show a clear increasing trajectory of payments: £1,053,223 was paid up to 31 July 2020, of which £298,112 was paid in the most recent month.
We are processing claims and awarding compensation as quickly as possible. The first payment was made just four months after the scheme was launched and we are making interim payments where parts of a claim can be resolved more easily than others.
However, each person’s claim is deeply personal and requires detailed consideration to understand their individual circumstances and experiences. Some individuals’ experiences are more complex than others and it is right we take the time to ensure these are considered carefully. We have also put people at the heart of the Scheme. We want each person to get the maximum compensation to which they are entitled, and we will work with individuals to support them in this. This holistic approach necessarily takes time but ultimately is beneficial to individuals.
In February this year we extended the duration of the Windrush Compensation Scheme by two years. The scheme will now be open for claims until April 2023.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support she is providing to victims of domestic abuse.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We are acutely aware of the need to put victims at the heart of our approach to tackling domestic abuse at this time. We are working closely with domestic abuse charities to monitor and assess impacts and needs.
The Government has posted advice regarding national helplines on gov.uk to guide victims to the most appropriate support for their individual needs (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/domestic-abuse-how-to-get-help ). This has been extensively promoted through our awareness raising campaign #YouAreNotAlone.
The Home Office has announced £2m of funding to help bolster helplines at this time; £1.2m of this has already been allocated to provide Covid-19 support. This is in addition to the £750 million funding package announced by the Chancellor, £76 million of which will support survivors of?domestic abuse, sexual violence and modern slavery?as well as ensure that vulnerable children and young people continue to get the help they need. From this funding the HO launched a £2m fund for national and regionally based domestic abuse organisations. £793,000 of this has already been allocated to 13 organisations and additional bids are currently being assessed.
Our Domestic Abuse Bill, which recently completed its Commons stages, will help to better protect and support the victims of all forms of domestic abuse and help bring perpetrators to justice.
As part of its ongoing support work for victims of domestic abuse the Home Office has also provided £1.1 million funding in 2020/21 to support seven national helplines providing support to victims of domestic abuse and sexual abuse, as well as £3 million to specialist services for children affected by domestic abuse, as a continuation of the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse fund.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that large social gatherings in houses do not take place during the covid-19 social distancing restrictions.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The police have the power to issue Fixed Penalty Notices where individuals are found in contravention of social distancing regulations. First time offenders may receive a Fixed Penalty Notice of £100 (reduced to £50 for early pay-ment), with fines increasing up to a maximum of £3,200 for subsequent of-fences. Latest data, published by NPCC on 15 May, shows a total of 13,445 FPNs have been issued between 27 March and 11 May. In addition, 799 FPNs have been issued in Wales taking the total for England and Wales to 14,244 for the period 27 March to 11 May.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Office, whether the automatic visa extension for frontline health workers extends to people employed in the NHS as healthcare assistants.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government has announced we will extend the visas for a range of healthcare professionals working for the NHS and independent health and care providers, where their current visa expires before 1 October. This offer also applies to their families. The 12-month extension is automatic and free of charge and those benefitting will not have to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge. Details of immigration changes, including the extended list of healthcare professionals covered by this offer, relating to COVID-19 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-immigration-and-borders.
We are continuing to work hand in hand with the Department of Health and Social Care on how we can best support frontline health and care workers.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has for people whose travel visas and work permits in the UK are expiring and whose countries are in lockdown.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office has put in place a range of measures to support those affected by the covid-19 outbreak. No individual who is in the UK legally and whose visa expires between 24 January 2020 and 30 May 2020 will be regarded as an overstayer or suffer any detriment in the future if they cannot leave the UK because of travel restrictions related to COVID-19. Their visa will be extended to 31 May 2020. Individuals must update their records online using the e-form published on Gov.uk. Individuals do not need to do anything else once they have submitted the online e-form and their status in the UK is secure from the point they have submitted.
These are unprecedented times and we may make further adjustments to requirements where necessary and appropriate, to ensure people are not unduly affected by circumstances beyond their control.