Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what his planned timetable is for establishing a process by which Ukrainians who did not receive a 1A stamp on arrival to the UK are able to apply for a biometric residence permit and extend their leave to remain.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We are aware of occasions where Ukrainians did not have their passport endorsed by an immigration official on arrival to the UK. Measures have been taken to prevent this from occurring in the future, and steps are being taken to progress those applications affected.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what was the average time taken to process a naturalisation application in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Secretary of State’s Home Department publishes data on the processing of applications for British citizenship on the Gov.uk website. We do not publish data on average processing times for naturalisation applications.
The link to the latest Migration Transparency Data can be found here:
Visas and citizenship data: Q3 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to increase the number of community policing teams in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions about how neighbourhood policing is delivered, including the deployment and composition of community policing teams, are for operationally independent Chief Constables. They are best placed to use their local knowledge and experience to serve local communities. Democratically elected PCCs are responsible for holding Chief Constables to account for the running of their force.
We are ensuring that policing has the resources it needs. As a result of the Police Uplift Programme there are now almost 150,000 officers in police forces across England and Wales - the highest number on record. As at 31 March 2023, West Midlands Police had recruited 1,376 additional officers against a total three-year uplift allocation of 1,218 officers.
The number of police officers within local policing roles in England and Wales is the highest since comparable data began. As at 31 March 2023, West Midlands Police had 3,629 full time equivalent police officers employed in local policing roles, a 4.2% increase on the previous year (3,483 FTE in March 2022).
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many dogs have been destroyed by police since 2019.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of dogs destroyed by the police.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent children being (a) exploited, (b) recruited into criminal organisations and (c) involved in knife crime in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is determined to crack down on knife crime and the criminal gangs who are exploiting our children and have a devastating impact on our communities.
That is why we are investing in a number of programmes to respond to child exploitation including the Prevention Programme, delivered by The Children’s Society, who work with partners across sectors to tackle and prevent a range of exploitation types.
In addition, we are investing up to £145m over three years in our County Lines Programme which provides funding for targeted operational activity in the four largest exporting force areas including West Midlands Police. We are also investing in dedicated specialist support provided by Catch-22 to help those who are criminally exploited through county lines to safely reduce and exit their involvement. Since the County Lines Programme was launched in 2019, police activity has resulted in over 4,700 lines closed, over 14,800 arrests and over 7,200 safeguarding referrals.
The Government is also committed to ensuring that the police have the tools and powers they need to tackle the scourge of knife crime on our streets. We are currently piloting Serious Violence Reduction Orders in the West Midlands which give the police more powers to stop and search convicted knife offenders. We also plan to legislate on banning zombie-style machetes and knives that have no practical use, more powers for police to seize knives that could be used in crimes, and a new offence and higher sentencing to those who sell and possess these dangerous weapons.
Since 2019, West Midlands Police have received over £20m of funding for a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) (including £4.38m this year) and £19m (including £3.4m this year) for the Grip programme. Collectively, these programmes are providing a multi-agency preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of violence, alongside additional, high visibility patrols and problem-solving tactics in the areas worst affected.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in which constituencies the provision of temporary accommodation in hotels for asylum seekers is being reduced; and in which constituencies capacity in already used hotels is being increased.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at Asylum and resettlement datasets Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets), under the document Asylum seekers in receipt of support (second edition). Data sets are published on a quarterly basis, the latest quarterly figures were released on 24 August 2023.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent agencies block-booking visa appointments.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
As part of the visa application process, customers overseas are invited to book an appointment to attend a Visa Application Centre (VAC) operated by commercial partners, VFS or TLScontact, on behalf of UKVI.
To prevent appointments being block-booked by agents, commercial partners release appointments in stages, rather than in large batches, and vary the dates and times at which appointments become available so agents cannot anticipate release.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what process her Department has for assessing citizenship applications from people who previously obtained a spousal visa through the submission of fraudulent documentation.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The requirements to naturalise as a British citizen are set out in the British Nationality Act 1981 and require a person to be of good character. An application to naturalise would normally fall be refused where a person has employed deception:
Guidance on the Good Character requirement can be found on GOV.UK:
Good character: caseworker guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason HM Passport Office requires applicants to submit birth, marriage and death certificates; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using General Register Office reference numbers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
HMPO requires applicants to submit birth, marriage and death certificates as part of the passport issuing process to enable determinations as to a customer’s nationality, identity and eligibility for a British passport.
In some circumstances, HMPO is able to check against electronic birth data for births occurring in England and Wales rather than requesting a paper certificate.
Asked by: Taiwo Owatemi (Labour - Coventry North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will support the award of the Platinum Jubilee Medal to former as well as serving members of the police.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government is steadfast in our support for the police. It is right that those serving on the front line in our emergency services are recognised in the award of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal. The medal allocations for the police and other services have now been finalised and officers who meet the criteria can expect to receive their medals in the coming weeks and months as we enter the jubilee year.
The criteria for jubilee medals are agreed on a cross-government basis. The criteria apply equally to the current workforce in other services including fire, ambulance and the armed forces, and have been established based on the precedent set for previous Jubilee Medals.