Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason restaurants that offer a takeaway or home delivery service have been precluded from becoming Tier 2 visa sponsors since 2011; and what assessment he has made of the effect of that policy on the strength of the south Asian and east Asian restaurant sector since that date.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Tier 2 (General) supports non-EEA high skilled workers taking up employment with UK based employers. The MAC has consulted widely with the restaurant industry on a number of occasions and they have concluded that the current criteria adequately identify the very best chefs whilst providing measures for preventing abuse of the system. In order to define what constitutes a skilled chef, the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and the Home Office developed criteria designed to identify the top 5% to 8% of chefs. Only chefs who meet these criteria are able to qualify under Tier 2 (General).
Part of the qualifying criteria is that the job must not be in an establishment which provides a take-away service. We believe that the finest quality restaurants are generally not associated with the provision of takeaway services. We recognise that there may be a small number of high quality exceptions, but the immigration system has to apply clear, objective and verifiable criteria equally to all applications.
We are carefully considering a range of options for the future immigration system and will set out initial plans in the coming months. The Government is clear that we will make decisions on the future immigration system based on evidence and engagement. That is why we asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to advise on the economic and social impacts of the UK’s exit from the EU and also on how the UK’s immigration system should be aligned with a modern industrial strategy. The MAC’s report is due to be published in September.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of changing the restrictions on Tier 2 visa sponsorship for chefs.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Tier 2 (General) supports non-EEA high skilled workers taking up employment with UK based employers. The MAC has consulted widely with the restaurant industry on a number of occasions and they have concluded that the current criteria adequately identify the very best chefs whilst providing measures for preventing abuse of the system. In order to define what constitutes a skilled chef, the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and the Home Office developed criteria designed to identify the top 5% to 8% of chefs. Only chefs who meet these criteria are able to qualify under Tier 2 (General).
Part of the qualifying criteria is that the job must not be in an establishment which provides a take-away service. We believe that the finest quality restaurants are generally not associated with the provision of takeaway services. We recognise that there may be a small number of high quality exceptions, but the immigration system has to apply clear, objective and verifiable criteria equally to all applications.
We are carefully considering a range of options for the future immigration system and will set out initial plans in the coming months. The Government is clear that we will make decisions on the future immigration system based on evidence and engagement. That is why we asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to advise on the economic and social impacts of the UK’s exit from the EU and also on how the UK’s immigration system should be aligned with a modern industrial strategy. The MAC’s report is due to be published in September.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2018 to question 135723, on Prince Harry: Marriage, whether Thames Valley Police have submitted an application to her Department for Special Grant funding for additional costs associated with policing the royal wedding.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office is working with Thames Valley Police to support the policing operation around the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms Markle. The Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner has not applied for Special Grant funding at this point, but any such application will be considered carefully.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to the letter of the hon. Member for Edinburgh East of 14 November 2017; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that MPs' offices are able to access their account manager team at UK Visas and Immigration.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The hon. Member’s letter of 14 November 2017 was received and a response will be issued as soon as possible.
MPs’ offices have a number of ways to contact their MP Account Management (MPAM) team; by phone, email or letter. Additionally if phone lines are engaged they have been given the MP Account Manager’s personal mobile number for urgent queries and also advised to email to book a call back from the MPAM team.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which fruitless payments in excess of £30,000 her Department has made by (a) recipient of each such payment, (b) purpose of each such payment, (c) value of each such payment and (d) reason that payment was classified as fruitless in the 2017-18 financial year to date.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Figures for 2017-18 will be available once the Home Office’s Annual Report and Accounts are audited by the National Audit Office, and laid before Parliament.
Here is the link for financial year 16/17 where information on previous losses and special payments can be found
16-17 Page 88 –
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627853/ho_annual_report_and_accounts_2016_2017.pdf
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many homeless EU citizens have been offered voluntary assisted return in each of the last five years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Please find attached a link to the published statistics on the take up of voluntary returns over the period requested, including by EU nationals:
The Home Office does not hold data on whether individuals were rough sleepers in a reportable format. Such information could not be retrieved except by a manual inspection of every applicable personal record. This is likely to incur costs over the cost threshold.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many homeless EU citizens have been arrested and deported in each (a) month since January and (b) nation of the UK.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Home Office does not hold the information you have requested in a reportable format. The Government publishes Immigration Statistics which details the number of enforced returns of EU citizens to June 2017.
This can be found at:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2017/how-many-people-are-detained-or-returned#enforced-returns-of-eu-nationals
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to bring forward secondary legislation to enable Scottish local authorities to accept unaccompanied minors from the National Transfer Scheme.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We are committed to extending the transfer provisions in the Immigration Act 2016 to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We intend to bring forward draft regulations at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that security measures undertaken by other governments outside the UK and funded from the public purse operate in conformity with child protection and human rights principles.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Government takes child protection and human rights very seriously and encourages the governments of all countries to comply with them. Where the UK government is helping fund activity by a foreign government we keep it under regular review. However, security or any other measures undertaken by other sovereign states and their compliance with child protection and human rights remain the responsibility of the government of that country.
Asked by: Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied children are supported by each local authority; how many children each local authority has offered to support; and what support has been offered to local authorities to increase their capacity to provide appropriate psychological support for unaccompanied child refugees.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Published data on unaccompanied asylum seeking children can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2017/how-many-people-do-we-grant-asylum-or-protection-to#unaccompanied-asylum-seeking-children.
There are over 4,000 unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) in local authority care in the UK.
The National Transfer Scheme was launched on 1 July 2016 and has been working to ensure a fairer allocation of UASC across the UK. A significant number of local authorities have participated in the scheme and enabled the transfer of children away from local authorities with a disproportionate number of UASC in their care.
The Government welcomes all offers from local authorities with capacity to look after UASC. We continue to engage with local authorities across the country to encourage further participation.
In support of the National Transfer Scheme central government increased funding to local authorities caring for UASC by up to 33% in July 2016. In August 2017 a review of funding for UASC was launched and all local authorities who currently look after unaccompanied children have been invited to submit evidence.