Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Qq 5 to 13 of the oral evidence given by his Department's Permanent Secretary to the Committee of Public Accounts on 15 April 2024, HC 639, when he plans to publish accounting officer advice relating to the (a) Illegal Migration Act 2023 and (b) Safety of Rwanda Bill.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
As the Permanent Secretary stated during the Public Accounts Committee evidence session on 15 April 2024, in his capacity as Accounting Officer (AO) he keeps all assessments under review, including where this relates to the Illegal Migration Act and the Safety of Rwanda Bill. In line with the guidance in Managing Public Money, the Department publishes summary AO assessments on projects that are part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, once they receive Outline Business Case stage. The summary assessments referred to will be handled in line with due process.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the then Minister for Immigration of 17 October 2023, Official Report, column 54WH, what recent progress the Government has made on establishing a specific route to family reunion for Afghan nationals who are family members of individuals resettled to the UK under pathway 1 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
For those evacuated from Afghanistan under Pathway 1 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) without their immediate family members, the Home Secretary has committed to establishing a route for separated families to be reunited in the first half of this year.
Further details will be provided in due course.
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 and what proportion of people who have claimed asylum since 20 July 2023 will be subject to the duty to remove imposed by the Illegal Migration Act.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Illegal Migration Act was introduced on 7th of March 2023 and received Royal Assent on 20 July 2023. Individuals who entered or arrived illegally from 20 July 2023 will be subject to the duty to remove (section 2 of the Illegal Migration Act) once commenced.
Once the act is commenced, official numbers will be available.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, as well as quality and availability of data. The Government’s published data on illegal migration (available here: Statistics relating to Illegal Migration - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)).
The Government’s priority is to deter individuals from making dangerous, illegal, and unnecessary journeys to the UK.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on how his Department can take steps to help tackle labour shortages in the fishing industry.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Skilled Worker route has a number of eligible occupations linked to the fishing sector, and the sector also benefits from a generous package of support provided by the Home Office when it comes to making visa applications.
Nevertheless, labour shortages cannot be solved through the immigration system alone and there is regular engagement between departments when developing policy. We will continue to strike the balance between reducing overall net migration and ensuring that businesses have the skills they need to support economic growth.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of his Department's policies on tackling labour shortages in the fishing industry.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Skilled Worker route has a number of eligible occupations linked to the fishing sector, and the sector also benefits from a generous package of support provided by the Home Office when it comes to making visa applications.
Nevertheless, labour shortages cannot be solved through the immigration system alone and there is regular engagement between departments when developing policy. We will continue to strike the balance between reducing overall net migration and ensuring that businesses have the skills they need to support economic growth.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with which airlines his Department has held discussions on the Rwanda scheme in the last six months.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Department engages with commercial partners where required to deliver on its responsibilities. The details of any such discussions are commercially sensitive and therefore we will not be providing a running commentary on them.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the risk of the far right and racists targeting (a) Poplar and Limehouse constituency and (b) other diverse areas; and what steps he is taking to protect communities from hate (i) crimes and (ii) speech.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
We have a robust legislative framework in place to respond to hate crimes which target race and religion and expect the police to fully investigate these appalling offences and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice. Our priority is to get more police onto our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training - there are now over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, which is higher than the previous peak in March 2010 before the Police Uplift Programme. Funding for the Metropolitan Police Service will be up to £3.5bn in 2024/25, an increase of up to £125.8m when compared to 2023/24. As of 30 September 2023, the Metropolitan Police Service has over 35,000 officers (35,006).
We are committed to protecting all communities from hate crime. In 2023/24, the Home Office is providing up to £50.9 million to protect faith communities. This includes £18 million through the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant, £29.4 million through the new Protective Security for Mosques scheme and a scheme for Muslim faith schools, and £3.5 million for the places of worship of other (non-Muslim and non-Jewish) faiths.
The Government continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal designed so that victims of all forms of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to provide expert advice to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the statement entitled Domestic Abuse Commissioner responds to Criminal Justice reforms in the King’s Speech, published on 7 November 2023, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to ensure perpetrators of domestic abuse can be removed from the police force and police staff as well as changes to police regulations to remove warrant cards from police officers under investigation for violence against women and girls offences.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Existing Regulations provide Chief Constables with a power to suspend officers under investigation, including where it is in the public interest to do so.
In February, Government announced that it will legislate for automatic suspension in cases where an officer is charged with an indictable only offence, and a presumption of suspension where an officer is charged with an either way offence. When suspended, an officer is suspended from the Office of Constable and its associated powers. Forces should remove officers’ warrant cards from them where this happens.
The Government is further introducing measures to strengthen the system for removing officers who are not fit to serve. These include a presumption of dismissal where officers are found to have committed gross misconduct and a clarified route to remove officers who fail to hold and maintain vetting.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the national referral mechanism.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Government is focussed on improving National Referral Mechanism (NRM) decision-making timescales. We have seen an unprecedented increase in the volume of referrals in the NRM; a 625% rise between 2014 and 2022. In 2023, 17,004 potential victims of modern slavery were referred to the Home Office, the highest annual number since the NRM began in 2009. Despite this, since January 2023 the number of decisions outstanding has been coming down for the first time ever, showing that what we are doing is working.
The Government is committed to ensuring that genuine victims are identified and introduced legislation under the Nationality and Borders Act to ensure that there is a robust system which supports victims and reduces the opportunity for misuse.
The Home Office holds all policies and procedures under review to ensure they are effective in delivering the aims of the government. We continue to monitor the effectiveness of the NRM accordingly.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress his Department has made on processing asylum applications for people who arrived in the UK between 7 March and 19 July 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In 2023 we met the Prime Minister's pledge to clear the legacy backlog of asylum cases made before 28 June 2022. The Home Office is now prioritising claims (lodged on or after 28 June 2022).
These are being considered under provisions in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022. It is only right that we consider the oldest claims first.
Our priority is to consider claims as efficiently as possible, in order to process claims efficiently, and reduce the number of people on asylum support, in turn reducing the burden on taxpayers.