Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on potential insurance claims and damages as a result of wildfires in Surrey.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office are the lead Government Department for Wildfire Response and own the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) wildfire risk. Government departments including Home Office, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities and key stakeholders work closely to mitigate the risk of wildfire.
The published Wildfire Framework outlines the work being undertaken to improve the UK’s preparedness for wildfires in England. The Home Office maintains regular engagement with National Bodies including the National Fire Chiefs Council and England and Wales Wildfire Forum to monitor and review sector led improvements to wildfire response and mitigation.
The Home Office have committed to scoping a wildfire strategy and action plan by mid-2024, with support from Defra and its agencies. This commitment is outlined in the third National Adaptation Plan and includes considering prevention, response and recovery actions.
In 24/25, the Home Office is funding a new National Resilience Wildfire Advisor who will assess what additional wildfire national capabilities might be needed to increase resilience to the wildfire risk and to ensure coordination of approaches across the sector.
Surrey County Council has overall responsibility for fire and rescue services in Surrey. The county council will receive an un-ringfenced grant for all of their services including fire, through the Local Government Finance Settlement and they will allocate funding according to their priorities.
All Fire and Rescue Authority’s including Surrey, are required to plan for the foreseeable risks in their area (including wildfires) through their Integrated Risk Management Plan. This will include plans to prevent and respond to incidents.
Individuals should contact their own insurance providers with regard to any potential claims for damage as a result of wildfire.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to mitigate potential wildfires in Surrey.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office are the lead Government Department for Wildfire Response and own the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) wildfire risk. Government departments including Home Office, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities and key stakeholders work closely to mitigate the risk of wildfire.
The published Wildfire Framework outlines the work being undertaken to improve the UK’s preparedness for wildfires in England. The Home Office maintains regular engagement with National Bodies including the National Fire Chiefs Council and England and Wales Wildfire Forum to monitor and review sector led improvements to wildfire response and mitigation.
The Home Office have committed to scoping a wildfire strategy and action plan by mid-2024, with support from Defra and its agencies. This commitment is outlined in the third National Adaptation Plan and includes considering prevention, response and recovery actions.
In 24/25, the Home Office is funding a new National Resilience Wildfire Advisor who will assess what additional wildfire national capabilities might be needed to increase resilience to the wildfire risk and to ensure coordination of approaches across the sector.
Surrey County Council has overall responsibility for fire and rescue services in Surrey. The county council will receive an un-ringfenced grant for all of their services including fire, through the Local Government Finance Settlement and they will allocate funding according to their priorities.
All Fire and Rescue Authority’s including Surrey, are required to plan for the foreseeable risks in their area (including wildfires) through their Integrated Risk Management Plan. This will include plans to prevent and respond to incidents.
Individuals should contact their own insurance providers with regard to any potential claims for damage as a result of wildfire.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the risk of potential wildfires in Surrey.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office are the lead Government Department for Wildfire Response and own the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) wildfire risk. Government departments including Home Office, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities and key stakeholders work closely to mitigate the risk of wildfire.
The published Wildfire Framework outlines the work being undertaken to improve the UK’s preparedness for wildfires in England. The Home Office maintains regular engagement with National Bodies including the National Fire Chiefs Council and England and Wales Wildfire Forum to monitor and review sector led improvements to wildfire response and mitigation.
The Home Office have committed to scoping a wildfire strategy and action plan by mid-2024, with support from Defra and its agencies. This commitment is outlined in the third National Adaptation Plan and includes considering prevention, response and recovery actions.
In 24/25, the Home Office is funding a new National Resilience Wildfire Advisor who will assess what additional wildfire national capabilities might be needed to increase resilience to the wildfire risk and to ensure coordination of approaches across the sector.
Surrey County Council has overall responsibility for fire and rescue services in Surrey. The county council will receive an un-ringfenced grant for all of their services including fire, through the Local Government Finance Settlement and they will allocate funding according to their priorities.
All Fire and Rescue Authority’s including Surrey, are required to plan for the foreseeable risks in their area (including wildfires) through their Integrated Risk Management Plan. This will include plans to prevent and respond to incidents.
Individuals should contact their own insurance providers with regard to any potential claims for damage as a result of wildfire.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish a response to the proposal of 18 April 2024 by the EU Commission to open negotiations to facilitate youth mobility visas between the EU and the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The UK notes the publication by the European Commission on 18 April 2024 setting out a proposal to EU Member States and seeking their agreement to negotiate a UK/EU wide Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS). This is currently a matter for the EU and its Member States and the UK has not been formally approached.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Oral Statement of 4 December 2023 on Legal Migration, Official Report, column 41, whether the joining family member of a person who (a) would have met the former threshold for family visas in force until 10 of April 2024 and (b) does not qualify under the new threshold will be placed on the 10-year route to settlement.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government engages regularly with interested stakeholders including through a number of its advisory groups, when developing its policies. We did not invite representations from stakeholders specifically on the MIR prior to the announcement of 4 December 2023.
The decision to raise the MIR was taken to ensure that migration policy is supportive of the wider ambition for the UK to be a high-wage, high-productivity, high-skill economy, and help to ensure that migrants make a net positive contribution to the public finances in addition to ensuring that families would not need to have recourse to welfare and had sufficient resources to participate in British life.
Previous advice and evidence provided by the Migration Advisory Committee regarding net-fiscal contributions and access to benefits was considered when making this decision. We did not seek further advice from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) before making the decision to increase the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) element of the family Immigration Rules.
A child who is applying for permission after 11 April 2024 to join their parent who, prior to 11 April met the lower threshold and was granted permission, will be subject to transitional arrangements and must meet the same threshold as their parent (£18,600 plus the child component, capped at £29,000). Where they meet the threshold alongside the other requirements of the 5-year route, they will be granted on the 5-year route to settlement.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 15 January 2024 to Question 8266 on Visas: Married People and to his oral contribution of 4 December 2023 on Legal Migration, Official Report, column 41, for what reason the Migration Advisory Committee was not consulted on those proposals.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government engages regularly with interested stakeholders including through a number of its advisory groups, when developing its policies. We did not invite representations from stakeholders specifically on the MIR prior to the announcement of 4 December 2023.
The decision to raise the MIR was taken to ensure that migration policy is supportive of the wider ambition for the UK to be a high-wage, high-productivity, high-skill economy, and help to ensure that migrants make a net positive contribution to the public finances in addition to ensuring that families would not need to have recourse to welfare and had sufficient resources to participate in British life.
Previous advice and evidence provided by the Migration Advisory Committee regarding net-fiscal contributions and access to benefits was considered when making this decision. We did not seek further advice from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) before making the decision to increase the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) element of the family Immigration Rules.
A child who is applying for permission after 11 April 2024 to join their parent who, prior to 11 April met the lower threshold and was granted permission, will be subject to transitional arrangements and must meet the same threshold as their parent (£18,600 plus the child component, capped at £29,000). Where they meet the threshold alongside the other requirements of the 5-year route, they will be granted on the 5-year route to settlement.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Oral Statement of 4 December 2023 on Legal Migration, Official Report, column 41, whether his Department invited representations from stakeholders prior to announcing an increase to the Minimum Income Requirement for family visas.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government engages regularly with interested stakeholders including through a number of its advisory groups, when developing its policies. We did not invite representations from stakeholders specifically on the MIR prior to the announcement of 4 December 2023.
The decision to raise the MIR was taken to ensure that migration policy is supportive of the wider ambition for the UK to be a high-wage, high-productivity, high-skill economy, and help to ensure that migrants make a net positive contribution to the public finances in addition to ensuring that families would not need to have recourse to welfare and had sufficient resources to participate in British life.
Previous advice and evidence provided by the Migration Advisory Committee regarding net-fiscal contributions and access to benefits was considered when making this decision. We did not seek further advice from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) before making the decision to increase the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) element of the family Immigration Rules.
A child who is applying for permission after 11 April 2024 to join their parent who, prior to 11 April met the lower threshold and was granted permission, will be subject to transitional arrangements and must meet the same threshold as their parent (£18,600 plus the child component, capped at £29,000). Where they meet the threshold alongside the other requirements of the 5-year route, they will be granted on the 5-year route to settlement.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to this Oral Statement of 4 December 2023 on Legal Migration, Official Report, column 41, whether family members of individuals that met the previous skilled worker salary threshold will remain eligible for the route to settlement.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Dependants of Skilled Workers can apply for settlement irrespective of the salary of the lead migrant, provided the lead migrant qualifies for settlement or has settled.
Further details on the changes and how they may affect migrants can be found through the following link: www.gov.uk/government/news/fact-sheet-on-net-migration-measures-further-detail.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women seeking asylum are accommodated in hotels as of 30 November 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Data is published on a quarterly basis. The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of statistics which disaggregates the number of females in contingency accommodation by local authority.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has published guidance on the treatment of women seeking asylum who are accommodated in hotels.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office has published the Asylum Support Contracts Safeguarding Framework at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-support-contracts-safeguarding-framework.
This framework sets out a joint, overarching approach, as well as the key controls and reporting mechanisms in place, across the AASC contracts, for safeguarding arrangements.