Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to enhance cybersecurity infrastructure to help tackle phishing scams through (a) text messaging and (b) fake payment websites.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Criminal Justice Bill will introduce a new offence of supplying or possessing “SIM farm” devices, which allow criminals to send scam texts to thousands of people at the same time, without good reason or undertaking adequate due diligence.
In addition, the Government and Industry have signed the Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter, a voluntary agreement to improve counter-fraud efforts. Under the Telecommunications Charter, the sector has introduced firewalls that detect and stop scam texts from reaching customers. The firewalls have stopped 960million scam text messages since January 2022.
Furthermore, domain registrars, Internet infrastructure (IIPs) and service providers (ISPs) operate robust voluntary arrangements for filtering, blocking and takedown of malicious websites, which is supported by the operational work of our agencies and law enforcement. NCSC also works in collaboration with industry partners to present ISPs with real-time threat data that enables them to instantly block access to known fraudulent or malicious websites. This has a major impact in protecting citizens from cyber- and cyber-facilitated crimes.
Where voluntary arrangements prove unsuccessful, we are introducing a new legislative power will provide law enforcement and investigative agencies with a formal process to suspend IP addresses and domain names that are being used to facilitate serious crime. This power will also be introduced as part of the Criminal Justice Bill.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the financial loss to UK residents due to (a) fraudulent text messages and (b) fake payment websites.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Fraud strategy estimates that in 2019/20 the financial loss from fraud offences was £3.1bn.
A link to the Fraud strategy can be found here: Fraud Strategy 2023
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will hold discussions with his Irish counterpart on the accuracy of figures for asylum-seekers who moved between the two countries in 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
There is a high level of cooperation on migration and border security between the UK and Irish Government. In particular, the Home Office regularly discuss asylum trends and work to respond to these trends with our counterparts in the Department of Justice.
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 case workers in the UK have received training to manage and process the deportation of individuals seeking asylum to Rwanda.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
As the Prime Minister has already set out, the necessary case workers in the UK have been recruited and trained and are ready to make decisions in preparation for the first individuals being relocated.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Afghan (a) principals and (b) dependents are being housed in hotel accommodation under the (i) Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and (ii) Afghan citizens resettlement scheme.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The UK has made an ambitious and generous commitment to resettle Afghans fleeing persecution and those who served the UK.
The latest published Immigration system statistics, year ending December 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) show that (up to the end of December 2023) we have brought around 27,900 people to safety from Afghanistan and the region.
These statistics also show that:
Afghan operational data is viewable at Afghan Resettlement Programme: operational data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Afghan people are awaiting an initial decision on their asylum application as of 18 April 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by nationality are published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum applications awaiting an initial decision detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to 31 December 2023. Data as at 31 March 2024 will be published on 23 May 2024.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure that universities are following English proficiency requirements for foreign students.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), as part of their compliance activities, conduct on-site audits of sponsors and check what assessment methods sponsors have used and their relevant evidence. Where there are any compliance breaches, UKVI take compliance action which can include formal action plans or revocation of the sponsor licence. English language assessments are also considered as part of the Basic Compliance Assessment which sponsors are required to pass on an annual basis.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much his Department has spent on costs associated with (a) AAA and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department, [2022] HWHC 3230 (Admin), for which judgment was passed on 19 December 2022, (b) AAA and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department, [2023] EWCA Civ 745, for which judgment was passed on 29 June 2023, (c) R (on the application of AAA and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, [2023] UKSC 42 on appeal from [2023] EWCA Civ 745, for which judgment was passed on 15 November 2023 and (d) other court cases relating to individual appeals against removal to Rwanda.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The most recently published information which includes legal fees is the National Audit Office Report which can be found here: Investigation into the costs of the UK-Rwanda Partnership - NAO report.
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 field visits the Monitoring Committee of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership has conducted in (a) the UK and (b) Rwanda in (i) 2024, (ii) 2023 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Monitoring Committee have been taken through the end-to-end process under the partnership. This took place in Kigali in March 2023 and in the UK in May 2023 and have also held official and non-official meetings throughout 2022, 2023 and 2024 as well as undertaking training and testing of IT systems.
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 the Migration and Economic Development Partnership Monitoring Committees in (a) Rwanda and (b) the UK have met (i) separately and (ii) together.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Monitoring Committee have been taken through the end-to-end process under the partnership. This took place in Kigali in March 2023 and in the UK in May 2023 and have also held official and non-official meetings throughout 2022, 2023 and 2024 as well as undertaking training and testing of IT systems.