Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, what steps his Department has taken to mitigate the risks of red-rated legacy IT systems.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, has established a programme to support departments managing legacy IT. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding certain assets within the IT estate. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by next year (2025). It is not appropriate to release sensitive information held about specific red-rated systems or more detailed plans for remediation within the Home Department’s IT estate, as this information could indicate which systems are at risk, and may highlight potential security vulnerabilities.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 38 of the Independent review of Border Force by Alexander Downer, published on 20 July 2022, whether he has made an estimate of the number and proportion of Heathrow Border Force Officers that have been informed of changes to their reasonable adjustments since that report was published.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
No members of staff have had their reasonable adjustments changed as a consequence of the Heathrow Change Programme.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people with similar names to people on watchlists are not harassed during border checks at airports.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Our priority is to maintain a secure border. We will not compromise on this. Border Force performs checks on all passengers arriving at the UK border on scheduled services to identify individuals who pose, or are suspected to pose, a risk to the national interest.
Identities, and combinations of names and dates of birth, are not necessarily unique. Individuals who share names with persons of interest may experience closer examination than would otherwise be the case.
The Home Office is making significant investment to improve the underlying technical infrastructure which performs border checks to identify individuals more precisely. This will reduce the number of individuals incorrectly matched to persons of interest and enable Border Force to identify more quickly individuals who are not to be confused with persons of interest. We expect these improvements to start having effect over the summer.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hotels were used to temporarily accommodate asylum seekers on 31 December (a) 2023 and (b) expected to be used by 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office has been clear that the use of hotels is a temporary and necessary measure to ensure we meet our statutory obligation to accommodate destitute asylum seekers.
We have made rapid progress since autumn 2023, having handed back over 100 hotels to their local communities. Over 20,000 fewer asylum seekers are accommodated in hotels now than in September 2023. In total, we will have closed 150 hotels by the beginning of May 2024.
Our statutory accommodation needs are kept under continuous review, and we will write to MPs and local authorities as further decisions on hotels are made.
For the safety and security of individual premises, the Home Office does not publish statistics showing the number or location of hotels used to house asylum seekers. However, provisional internal management information indicates a total of 342 hotels were accommodating asylum seekers as of 31 December 2023.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2023 to Question 2884 on UK Border Force: Dogs and with reference to the Answer of 31 July 2017 to Question 5188 on UK Border Force: Dogs, for what reason his Department was able to provide that information to Question 5188.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Home Office concerns about the operations of Border Force lead to the information being deemed sensitive and not for public release; I refer the Rt Hon Member to the previous answer expressing concerns about the impact on the security of our borders.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the treatment that people with similar names to people on watchlists receive during border checks at airports.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Our priority is to maintain a secure border. We will not compromise on this. Border Force performs checks on all passengers arriving at the UK border on scheduled services to identify individuals who pose, or are suspected to pose, a risk to the national interest.
Identities, and combinations of names and dates of birth, are not necessarily unique. Individuals who share names with persons of interest may experience closer examination than would otherwise be the case.
The Home Office is making significant investment to improve the underlying technical infrastructure which performs border checks to identify individuals more precisely. This will reduce the number of individuals incorrectly matched to persons of interest and enable Border Force to identify more quickly individuals who are not to be confused with persons of interest. We expect these improvements to start having effect over the summer.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applications for citizenship were refused in each year since 1994.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Historical data relating to those who applied to naturalise/registration can be found here:
These summary tables report those who were naturalised, registered, or refused on tab Cit_02 since 1987.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Department's press release entitled 100th asylum hotel set to close next week, published on 20 March 2024, how many of the 100 hotels closed by the end of March 2024 were used to accommodate personnel relocating through the (a) Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy and (b) Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme and their families.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
None of the 100 hotels were used to accommodate people relocating through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy or the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.
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 hotels used to house asylum seekers by region or constituency.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Department's press release entitled 100th asylum hotel set to close next week, published on 20 March 2024, how many of the 100 hotels closed by the end of March 2024 were located in each (a) region and (b) constituency.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
None of the 100 hotels were used to accommodate people relocating through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy or the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.
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 hotels used to house asylum seekers by region or constituency.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when people whose cases had been on hold as part of the Review of applications by Tier 1 (General) migrants refused under paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Rules and where time spent in the UK as such a migrant formed a part of the consideration can expect to receive a decision on their outstanding applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not publish statistics on legacy cases.
Currently, there is one outstanding case which will be concluded shortly.