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Written Question
Migrants: Domestic Abuse
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will remove the reservation on Article 59 of the Istanbul Convention.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

The reservation on Article 59 will be kept in place at this time but kept under review as the policies which address support for migrant victims of domestic abuse develop.

We continue to be committed to supporting migrant victims of domestic abuse. This includes the recently expanded Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession, the immediate settlement provisions under Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse and the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme.


Written Question
UK Border Force: Staff
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people worked for Heathrow Border Force before the Heathrow Change Programme; and what proportion of these were (a) men and (b) women.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office would not disclose information which is considered likely to cause prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs.

Border Force staffing numbers can be obtained from the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022 to 2023 (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
UK Border Force: Redundancy
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Heathrow Border Force staff have taken voluntary exit as a result of the Heathrow Change Programme; and how many such staff are (a) women and (b) disabled people.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office can confirm 158 staff have indicated they wish to take the voluntary exit scheme. 54% of those staff who have indicated taking the voluntary exit are female. 18% of staff who have indicated, wishing to take the voluntary exit scheme, have a disability.


Written Question
UK Border Force: Complaints
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many grievances have been raised by Heathrow Border Force staff in response to the Heathrow Change Programme; how many of these have been rejected; and what proportion of grievances were raised by (a) women and (b) disabled people.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office would not disclose information which is considered likely to cause prejudice to the effectiveness of public affairs.


Written Question
Detention Centres: Women
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department is taking steps to reduce the number of vulnerable women held in immigration detention.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Home Office are committed to ensuring the proper protection and treatment of women, including vulnerable women, in detention and will seek to facilitate voluntary return as an alternative to detention and enforced removal. Further information can be found in published operational guidance DSO 06/2016 Women in the Detention Estate.

We fully accept that some groups of individuals can be at particular risk of harm in immigration detention. This is the basis of the adults at risk in immigration detention policy DSO 08/2016 Management of adults at risk in immigration detention, which strengthens the presumption against detention for vulnerable individuals.

Women who are victims of torture, trafficking or sexual violence are all covered by the adults at risk in immigration detention policy. Anyone who falls within the scope of the policy is regarded as unsuitable for detention unless the specific immigration circumstances in their case are considered to outweigh the vulnerability issues.

Plans are in place to convert Derwentside immigration removal centre (IRC) from a female only centre, into a detained facility for men, reducing female capacity across the existing estate.


Written Question
UK Border Force: Conditions of Employment
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Heathrow Border Force staff have been asked to accept new terms and conditions as part of the Heathrow Change Programme; and how many such staff are (a) women and (b) disabled people.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

No members of staff have been asked to accept new terms and conditions. All staff were given a range of options on which they could make the decision which best suited them.


Written Question
UK Border Force: Reasonable Adjustments
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Heathrow Border Force staff had reasonable adjustments before the Heathrow Change Programme; and what proportion of such staff were (a) women and (b) disabled people.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office do not hold the requested information on how many people working for Border Force at Heathrow prior to the Change Programme had reasonable adjustments, in an accessible format.


Written Question
UK Border Force: Staff
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many disabled people worked for Heathrow Border Force before the Heathrow Change Programme.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office do not hold the requested information on how many people working for Border Force Heathrow prior to the Change Programme had declared a disability, in an easily accessible format.


Written Question
UK Border Force: Pay
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Heathrow Border Force staff have gone down a pay grade as part of the Heathrow Change Programme; and what proportion of such staff are (a) women and (b) disabled people.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

No members of staff have gone down a pay grade as part of the Heathrow Change Programme.


Written Question
Gender Based Violence: Victims
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his Department's policy paper entitled Tackling violence against women and girls strategy, published on 21 July 2021, what progress his Department has made on ensuring support is provided to survivors of gender-based violence.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

We have completed or closed over half of all cross-government commitments in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy (2021) and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan (2022).

This includes:

  • Allocating £6.6 million to deliver interventions that improve our understanding of ‘what works’ to prevent violence against women and girls.
  • Ensuring consistency in support services through introducing national commissioning standards through the Victims Funding Strategy.
  • Launching the VAWG Support and Specialist Services Fund with £8.3m of funding support victims facing the greatest barriers.
  • Supporting the passage of the Worker Protection (Amendment of the Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 which places a new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees.
  • Invested over £150m of funding through Safer Streets and Safety of Women at Night fund on a range of projects focused on improving public safety, including for women and girls.
  • Doubled funding for the National Domestic Abuse helpline and other helplines such as the Revenge Porn Helpline and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s National stalking helpline.
  • Relaunched the Flexible Fund in January 2024 with a further £2m investment to help remove barriers to domestic abuse victims leaving their abusers, after its successful £300,000 pilot in 2023.