Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that decisions on UK visas are made within expected service standards.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
UKVI has faced extremely high pressures in the past two years. All visa routes have seen extremely high demand following the end of the pandemic, easing of travel restrictions and helping people forced to flee their homes as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The Home Office is working hard to speed up decision-making by rolling out better, more efficient technology, including digital interviewing and moving away from a paper-based system. We are also continuing to recruit more decision-making staff
We publish our current service standards on gov.uk for both in-country and out of country applications, which includes details of current operational processing times so customers have a realistic indication of how long their applications will take to be processed. We encourage customers to continue to refer to these updates as our processing times change on a regular basis. The link to this guidance for in-country applications is: Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and out of country applications is: Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent incidents similar to the public disorder that occurred in Leicester on 20 September 2022.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The police have comprehensive powers to deal with activities that spread hate or deliberately raise tensions through violence or public disorder. The use of these powers is an operational matter for the police.
Police forces have routinely demonstrated that that they can appropriately mobilise in response to a variety of public order policing operations.
The Home Secretary visited Leicester to better understand the causes of the disorder and what can be learned to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
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 reintroducing a List of Travellers scheme for school groups.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The List of Travellers scheme is an EU scheme. As part of its ‘communication on readiness at the end of the transition period between the European Union and the United Kingdom’, the European Commission announced in July 2020 they would no longer be accepting the List of Travellers as a visa waiver for TCN pupils based in the UK with effect from 1 January 2021.
In line with phasing out ID cards, third country national pupils legally resident in the EEA or Switzerland have not been able to travel to the UK using the LoT scheme in place of their national passport - and visa if needed - since 1 October 2021.
Citizens of some countries are required to obtain a visa before travelling to the UK. This list is set out in the Immigration Rules Appendix Visitor: Visa national list: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-visitor-visa-national-list. The visa requirement is based on nationality rather than the purpose of travel or age of the applicant.
The UK’s immigration system is global and applies to all regardless of nationality. All those visiting the UK, including on school visits or exchanges, are assessed against the same immigration rules which area available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-v-visitor.
There are currently no plans to change our approach to under 18s travelling as part of an organised group.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to establish the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership.
Answered by Simon Baynes
An independent Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will monitor the entire relocation process and compliance with assurances in the Memorandum of Understanding, including the processing of asylum claims and provision of support in Rwanda.
The Monitoring Committee will agree an annual, resourced monitoring plan with the Joint Committee. The terms of reference and membership of the Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership are in the process of being developed and will set out how the Monitoring Committee will report its findings.
The Monitoring Committee is due to become established over the next few weeks. More details on this will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that her policy of transferring people with asylum applications to Rwanda does not result in the separation of families.
Answered by Simon Baynes
With the exception of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, any individual who has arrived in the UK through dangerous, illegal and unnecessary methods since 1 January 2022 may be considered for relocation to Rwanda. Decisions will be taken on a case-by-case basis, and nobody will be relocated if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.
Everyone considered for relocation will be screened and have access to legal advice.
We have published our Inadmissibility guidance on GOV.UK to make clearer provisions for removals to a safe third country under a model like the MEDP Partnership.
Those with family links in the UK, who want to be considered for entry to the UK, should seek to do so via safe and legal routes. Nobody needs to put their lives into the hands of criminal people smuggling gangs by making dangerous and irregular journeys. Individuals with family in the UK may still be relocated to Rwanda subject to a detailed consideration of their Article 8 rights under the Human Rights Act.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership is established before anyone is transferred under that scheme.
Answered by Simon Baynes
An independent Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will monitor the entire relocation process and compliance with assurances in the Memorandum of Understanding, including the processing of asylum claims and provision of support in Rwanda.
The Monitoring Committee will agree an annual, resourced monitoring plan with the Joint Committee. The terms of reference and membership of the Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership are in the process of being developed and will set out how the Monitoring Committee will report its findings.
The Monitoring Committee is due to become established over the next few weeks. More details on this will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what resources will be provided to the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership to enable it to fulfil its functions.
Answered by Simon Baynes
An independent Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will monitor the entire relocation process and compliance with assurances in the Memorandum of Understanding, including the processing of asylum claims and provision of support in Rwanda.
The Monitoring Committee will agree an annual, resourced monitoring plan with the Joint Committee. The terms of reference and membership of the Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership are in the process of being developed and will set out how the Monitoring Committee will report its findings.
The Monitoring Committee is due to become established over the next few weeks. More details on this will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the findings and recommendations of the Monitoring Committee set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership will be made publicly available.
Answered by Simon Baynes
An independent Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership will monitor the entire relocation process and compliance with assurances in the Memorandum of Understanding, including the processing of asylum claims and provision of support in Rwanda.
The Monitoring Committee will agree an annual, resourced monitoring plan with the Joint Committee. The terms of reference and membership of the Monitoring Committee for the Migration and Economic Development Partnership are in the process of being developed and will set out how the Monitoring Committee will report its findings.
The Monitoring Committee is due to become established over the next few weeks. More details on this will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 26 April 2022 to Question 156340 on Sexual Harassment: Public Places, what plans she has to collect survivor and victim testimony as part of the proposed public consultation on public sexual harassment.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Sexual harassment in public places is appalling, and this Government is committed to tackling it. Women and girls have the right to both be and feel safe on our streets.
As set out in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, published last July, and whose Call for Evidence was informed by over 180,000 responses, the vast majority of them from the public, we have been looking carefully at where there may be gaps in existing law and how a specific offence for public sexual harassment could address those.
As a result of this work, we will by the summer recess begin a consultation on whether there should be a new offence of public sexual harassment. We will seek to ensure that a representative range of voices is included in the responses to the consultation.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 26 April 2022 to Question 156340 on Sexual Harassment: Public Places, what her timeline is for the planned public consultation on whether there should be a criminal offence of public sexual harassment.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Sexual harassment in public places is appalling, and this Government is committed to tackling it. Women and girls have the right to both be and feel safe on our streets.
As set out in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, published last July, and whose Call for Evidence was informed by over 180,000 responses, the vast majority of them from the public, we have been looking carefully at where there may be gaps in existing law and how a specific offence for public sexual harassment could address those.
As a result of this work, we will by the summer recess begin a consultation on whether there should be a new offence of public sexual harassment. We will seek to ensure that a representative range of voices is included in the responses to the consultation.