Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent Refugee Council report Keys to the City 2024: ending refugee homelessness in London and its finding that in the two years to September 2023, there was a 239 per cent increase in refugees requiring homelessness support from local authorities after being evicted from Home Office asylum accommodation.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We recognise the number of individuals moving on from the asylum support system is placing pressure on local authorities. The Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are working closely on this and have been regularly engaging with local authorities to ensure they are supported. There are a number of improvements in train to ensure local authorities receive early notification of those leaving Home Office asylum accommodation to enable effective planning.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to the respond to the letter from Professor Brian Bell of the Migration Advisory Committee requesting data for a rapid review of the Graduate Route.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We provided the requested data to the Migration Advisory Committee by 26 March 2024.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he is taking steps to help ensure that people with indefinite leave to remain that was granted before the digitisation of his Department's records are able to prove their immigration status when travelling.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As part of our move to a ‘digital by default’ border and immigration system, physical immigration documents are being replaced by fully digital eVisas (an online record of the person’s immigration status).
Customers with indefinite leave to enter or indefinite leave to remain (also known as settlement) who currently prove their rights using a physical document such as a wet-ink stamp in their passport or a vignette sticker, are encouraged to make a ‘No Time Limit’ (NTL) application.
If their NTL application is successful, they will get a BRP to prove their rights. They should carry their BRP, along with their passport, when travelling internationally. Once they have a BRP, they will be able to create a UKVI account to access their eVisa later this year. By the end of 2024, ‘No Time Limit’ applicants will receive an eVisa, rather than a BRP. Further updates on this change will be available in due course.
Customers who do not create a UKVI account will be able to use their legacy physical document such as a wet-ink stamp in their passport or a vignette sticker during 2025 when travelling. However, creating a UKVI account will bring a range of benefits to customers. This includes the fact that an eVisa cannot be lost or damaged, like a vignette, and there is no need for a potentially costly replacement. Customers who replace their legacy document with an eVisa will benefit from the automated access that public bodies, including the Department for Work & Pensions and the National Health Service will securely have to their immigration status, which will streamline access to key services. We are also developing technology to enable carriers to check immigration status automatically via systems checks for those with eVisas, reducing the need for carriers to make physical documentation checks and improving the passenger experience.
Further information about eVisas and future updates will be available at www.gov.uk/evisa.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2024 to Question 23443 on Prostitution: Internet, whether his Department has received legal advice on the legality of the operations of adult services websites.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The acts of buying and selling sex are not in themselves illegal in England and Wales. Adult Service Websites are online advertising directories that provide a platform on which legitimate sex workers and escorts can advertise their services and are legal under current prostitution legislation.
Ministers responsible for the Safeguarding portfolio have met the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for sex work five times since 2017; at least two of those meetings were conducted virtually. The Home Office works closely with the police to cut crime and protect vulnerable people. Officials regularly meet representatives of NPCC portfolios as part of their routine engagement with the police.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times (a) Ministers and (b) officials have met the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for sex work (i) online and (ii) in person in each year since 2017.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The acts of buying and selling sex are not in themselves illegal in England and Wales. Adult Service Websites are online advertising directories that provide a platform on which legitimate sex workers and escorts can advertise their services and are legal under current prostitution legislation.
Ministers responsible for the Safeguarding portfolio have met the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for sex work five times since 2017; at least two of those meetings were conducted virtually. The Home Office works closely with the police to cut crime and protect vulnerable people. Officials regularly meet representatives of NPCC portfolios as part of their routine engagement with the police.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will take steps to help support Edinburgh Airport to provide pre-clearance for travellers to the US.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government is supportive of the principle of US pre-clearance and there have been initial discussions between the UK and US governments, however, pre-clearance requires a commercial agreement between the airport operator and US authorities for these to be advanced.
It is important to note pre-clearance is not something which could be quickly implemented at UK airports. Careful negotiation across the UK Government and with the US would be required before pre-clearance could become a reality at UK airports.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding to West Midlands Police for the policing of road traffic collisions.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
West Midlands Police’s funding will be up to £790.4m in 2024/25, an increase of up to £51.1m when compared to 2023/24.
The policing of fatal and serious injury road collisions and how available resources are deployed in the West Midlands is the responsibility of the West Midlands Police Constable and Police and Crime Commissioner, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been affected by merged identities in the Person Centric Data Platform.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Person Centric Data Platform (PCDP) holds millions of identities that have been submitted, or otherwise provided, in support of immigration applications.
The ‘merged identities’ issue affects around 0.02% of PCDP customer records; over 99.98% of records are not impacted by this issue. We have identified around 46,000 records with an identity issue, of which over 13,000 have already been resolved and we have a dedicated team working on the remainder.
The Home Office takes data security and accuracy very seriously. We continue pro-active analysis to identify potentially erroneous records so that appropriate remedial work can be undertaken as quickly, and as carefully, as possible, and ideally before the individual is even aware.
Where customers identify an issue with their data, we encourage them to contact the UK Visas and Immigration Contact Centre so this can be investigated and resolved.
As part of the Identity Document Linking change, we pro-actively highlighted a small number of records which were sent for manual resolution through our existing processes. We expect that most of these records would have been corrected before the person themselves would become aware.
We do not hold information on how many people have contacted the Home Office due to a merged identity issue which is directly related to the document linking change.
We are not aware of any significant delays to visa application processing as a result of this issue. UKVI also have a triage process in place so that where there may be an outstanding application, cases can be escalated for immediate resolution.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate he has made of the number of applications to stay in the UK that are made on the basis of a sham marriage or civil partnership.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of applications to stay in the UK that are made on the basis of a sham marriage or civil partnership does not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published. The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hotels that were previously used to provide accommodation for asylum seekers and subsequently closed by his Department have subsequently been reopened for that purpose.
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.
Since October 2023, none of the 150 hotels that have ceased to be used for accommodating asylum seekers have been re-contracted or re-used by the Home Office for this purpose.