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 to ensure that visa application decisions for refugees travelling together under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme are considered and granted at the same time.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on the number of visas granted under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Schemes: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
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 visas have been granted to children under the Homes for Ukraine scheme for each day since that scheme opened on 18 March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on the number of visas granted under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Schemes: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
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 visas have been granted to adults under the Homes for Ukraine scheme for each day since that scheme opened on 18 March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on the number of visas granted under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Schemes: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
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 visa applications under the Homes for Ukraine scheme have been (a) received and (b) granted for each day since that scheme opened on 18 March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on the number of visas granted under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Schemes: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
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 she has made of the potential impact of provisions in the Nationality and Borders Bill on family reunion for asylum seekers from (a) Eritrea and (b) Sudan.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Family reunion for Group 2 refugees of any nationality will be permitted where a refusal would be a breach of our international obligations under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
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 her Department has undertaken monitoring of fires caused by e-scooters in (a) single owned properties, (b) privately owned properties in multiple occupation and (c) social housing properties in multiple occupation.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
E-scooters are not one of the response categories for causes of fires in the Incident Recording System (IRS). As such the Home Office cannot currently break down the number of fires caused by e-scooters in the settings requested.
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 guidance her Department plans to issue to housing associations and local authorities on the safe storage of e-scooters in the context of recent fires involving those scooters.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Home Office has a programme to update Fire Safety Order guidance which will reflect the latest legislative and policy positions when they are published over the next year to support the regulations to implement Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations and the fire safety changes planned through Building Safety Bill.
While existing guidance does not have information on e-scooters, as these have come into usage since they were developed, London Fire Brigade has issued some guidance through a press release on how to use and store them safety from a fire safety perspective. We will look to work this advice into updated guidance where appropriate.
The advice is available here:
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 asylum decisions her Department made without substantive asylum interviews in the past 12 months.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office are unable to state how many asylum decisions have been made without substantive asylum interviews in the past 12 months as this information is not held in a reportable format and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.
The Home Office carefully considers all asylum claims on a case by case basis, irrespective of their nationality or group, based on their individual merits, against a background of relevant case law and up to date country information.
In most asylum cases we will ask the claimant to complete a Preliminary Information Questionnaire (PIQ). The information contained in the PIQ (or Statement of Evidence Form for children) will be used alongside all of the other evidence already held about the claim to help determine whether or not it is appropriate to omit an asylum interview.
The criteria for when a substantive asylum interview can be omitted are contained in Paragraph 339NA of the Immigration Rules and include cases where we are able to take a positive decision on the basis of evidence available, or if the claimant is unfit or unable to be interviewed owing to enduring circumstances beyond their control. It would be inappropriate to adopt a blanket approach to certain nationalities or groups because of the differing circumstances of each claim.
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 substantive asylum interviews were conducted (a) via video technology and (b) in total in 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office are unable to state the number of asylum interviews were conducted via video technology and in total in 2021 as this information is not published because it is not held in a reportable format.
The Home Office has successfully used video technology to support remote interviewing for more than 2 years and has appropriate operating procedures that are designed to ensure participants are able to give the best account of their circumstances when it is used.
We are also able to offer in person interviews for those seeking asylum if requested or required where additional needs are presented.
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 officials were responsible for examining and making decisions on asylum applications at the end of 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The number of officials who were responsible for examining and making decisions on asylum applications at the end of 2021 is not held in a reportable format as resources cross a number of different departments. Therefore, to obtain this information could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.
However, the Home Office can provide the number of asylum decision makers from up to year ending 2021. This data can be found in ASY_04 of the published Transparency data:
Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)