Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of automatically extending the period in which all Ukrainians living in the UK under the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme can stay in the UK.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government are fully committed to supporting Ukraine in its fight against Putin’s illegal war, while also providing a safe and secure haven for those fleeing the conflict. We have offered our extended sanctuary to over 300,000 Ukrainians and their families.
On 1 September, the Home Secretary announced in parliament that the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme (UPE) would be extended for an additional 24 months to enable those eligible to obtain a further period of permission following their initial permission under UPE. More detail will follow in due course.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of granting indefinite leave to remain to all Ukrainians who have lived in the UK for more than five years.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to my answer given on 1 May to PQ UIN 47468.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 her Department's policy that time spent under the Ukraine visa schemes does not count towards the continuous residence period for settled status on the ability of Ukrainians to seek (a) rental agreements, (b) changes of employment and (c) enrolment on an education course.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government have always been clear that the Ukraine Schemes are temporary and do not lead to settlement in the UK. Similarly, time spent in the UK with permission granted under the Ukraine Schemes cannot be relied upon towards the continuous qualifying period for the purposes of a Long Residence application.
The Government continues to keep both the Ukraine Schemes and the evolving situation in Ukraine under close and active review.
On 1 September, the Home Secretary announced in parliament that the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme (UPE) would be extended for an additional 24 months to enable those eligible to obtain a further period of permission following their initial permission under UPE. More detail will follow in due course.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with police forces on the effectiveness of their complaints system for police officers who believe that a miscarriage of justice has taken place against them.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are separate routes of appeal depending on whether a police officer is appealing against the conviction of a criminal offence or the finding or outcome at disciplinary proceedings.
Where an officer believes they have been wrongly convicted of a criminal offence, they can appeal a criminal conviction in the normal way through the standard appeals process. Separately, police officers who wish to challenge a disciplinary finding or outcome may do so to the Police Appeals Tribunal (PAT). Following the decision of the PAT, officers have a further appeal route through the judicial review process.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects the Migration Advisory Committee's review into the financial requirements for the Family Visa route to be published; and what plans she has for the minimum salary threshold for the Family Visa.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is an independent body, and their review of the financial requirements will be robust and transparent. It is expected the MAC will issue their report in the Summer. We will carefully consider the MAC’s recommendations before making any further changes.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of HM Passport Office accepting multilingual standardised birth certificates as part of passport applications for the children of British parents born in Europe.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
His Majesty’s Passport Office requires customers to provide a full birth certificate, issued in the country of birth, as part of a passport application. Multilingual Standard Forms do not meet this criteria: they are an extract of a civil registration record translated into the language needed and are not a full original certificate.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of enabling the use of electronic signatures, matched to the DVLA database, for admissions of vehicular offences on S172 forms.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Whilst the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 does not explicitly require wet signatures, the Penalty Notice System for Policing does not currently have the capability to match signatures between DVLA and s.172 forms.
A number of forces have additional software that in some cases allow for online admissions via a public access portal.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that premises covered by the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill will also be required to provide (a) first aid equipment and (b) public access trauma kits.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Terrorism Protection of Premises Bill does not include a specific requirement relating to the provision of medical treatment and associated equipment.
Wider work is ongoing to strengthen Healthcare Standards. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) is working with partners to put in place updated guidance for health care at events.
DHSC has also undertaken work with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) and health sector partners to help improve and standardise the contents of Public Access Trauma (PAcT) kits.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to the Home Office, with reference to her Oral Statement of 27 November 2024 on Respect Orders and anti-social behaviour, whether police officers will be able to pursue (a) off road bikes and (b) e scooters when these vehicles are being used in (i) an anti-social or (b) dangerous manner.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The police are able to pursue off road bikes and electric scooters when they are used anti-socially or dangerously. Any decision on whether to undertake a pursuit is an operational one for the police and should take account of the risk factors and proportionality in each situation.
The Home Office works closely with the NPCC to understand how the safety of police pursuits can be improved.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) making wildlife crimes notifiable and (b) including them in national crime statistics.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans currently to make all wildlife crimes notifiable and consequentially to include in the national crime statistics. Any non-notifiable wildlife crime reported to police can still be investigated where appropriate, as Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.
This Government recognises the importance of tackling wildlife crime, which is why, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit to help tackle these crimes.
The National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) provides intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to the police and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime. This includes supporting cases referred by Border Force to the National Crime Agency or to individual forces. The NWCU is also the UK policing focal point for EUROPOL and INTERPOL wildlife crime activity. The NWCU uses this information to produce strategic and tactical assessments of wildlife crime across the UK.