Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the five most common nationalities of asylum applicants making fresh claims to the UK were in 2019; and how many fresh asylum applications those nationalities submitted.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Home Office records indicate that a total of 6,273 further submissions were lodged on protection grounds between 01/01/2019 and 30/09/2019, by individuals who had previously been refused asylum in the UK.
Home Office records indicate that the five most common nationalities of asylum applicants lodging further submissions on protection grounds between 01/01/2019 and 30/09/2019, and the volume of applications submitted by these nationalities, are:
Nationality | Number of applications |
Iran (Islamic Republic of) | 985 |
Pakistan | 704 |
Iraq | 680 |
Bangladesh | 510 |
Afghanistan | 433 |
Total | 3,312 |
|
|
When people who have previously been refused asylum in the UK wish to make representations in support of a fresh asylum applications these are recorded as Further Submissions. Only where those submissions have been considered and it has been decided not to grant any leave is it considered whether the Further Submissions amount to a fresh asylum application.
The above data relates to main applicants who lodged Further Submissions between 01/01/2019 and 30/09/2019 which is the latest reportable period in line with immigration statistics. The data is a count of the number of Further Submissions lodged. Some people may have lodged more than one submission during the period.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Viscount Younger of Leckie (HL16983), whether they will include the list of Trade Envoys and appointment dates in the text of the Written Answer for inclusion in Hansard.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
I refer the Noble Lord to the Written Ministerial Statement given by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for International Trade on 18 July 2019, HCWS1760.
On the 18 July 2019 my Noble Friend Lord Risby was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Lebanon which is in addition to his current role as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Algeria. Also on the 18 July 2019 the Hon. Member for Dudley North, Ian Austin MP, was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Israel. These two new appointments take the total number of Trade Envoys to 27 parliamentarians covering 58 markets.
Full List of Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys, their Markets and date of appointment
Trade Envoy Name | Designated Markets | Date of PM Appointment |
Lord Risby | Algeria | November 2012 |
| Lebanon | July 2019 |
Baroness Morris | Jordan, Kuwait, Palestinian Territories | November 2012 |
Baroness Bonham Carter | Mexico | November 2012 |
Richard Graham MP | Indonesia | November 2012 |
| Trade Envoy to the ASEAN Economic Community | July 2015 |
| Philippines, Malaysia | January 2016 |
Baroness Nicholson | Iraq | January 2014 |
| Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan | April 2016 |
| Kazakhstan | July 2017 |
Lord Janvrin | Turkey | January 2014 |
Mark Prisk MP | (Investment Envoy) Nordic and Baltic Region | April 2014 |
| Brazil | March 2016 |
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP | Egypt | November 2015 |
Adam Afriyie MP | Ghana | January 2016 |
| Guinea | September 2017 |
Lord Popat | Uganda, Rwanda | January 2016 |
John Howell MP | Nigeria | January 2016 |
Rushanara Ali MP | Bangladesh | March 2016 |
Lord Astor of Hever | Oman | November 2016 |
Lord Faulkner | Taiwan | January 2016 |
Lord Lamont | Iran | January 2016 |
Baroness Northover | Angola | January 2016 |
| Zambia | July 2017 |
Paul Scully MP | Myanmar, Brunei, Thailand | July 2017 |
Jeremy Lefroy MP | Ethiopia | July 2017 |
Andrew Selous MP | South Africa | July 2017 |
Mark Pritchard MP | Georgia, Armenia | September 2017 |
Mark Menzies MP | Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile | September 2017 |
Simon Hart MP | Panama, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica | September 2017 |
Ed Vaizey MP | Vietnam, Laos,Cambodia | September 2017 |
Sir Henry Bellingham MP | Libya | June 2018 |
Pauline Latham MP | Kenya | August 2018 |
Andrew Rosindell MP | Tanzania | September 2018 |
Ian Austin MP | Israel | July 2019 |
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many occasions his Department has invited home-country officials to interview asylum seekers; and what the nationality of those officials was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We have a proud history of providing protection to those who need it. All asylum claims are carefully considered on their individual merits by assessing all evidence provided by the claimant against published country information. In line with our legal duty of confidentiality, we do not disclose information about asylum claims to an individual’s home country. We do not facilitate interviews with representatives from an asylum seeker’s home country whilst their claim is being considered.
Only after an individual’s asylum claim is refused, may it become necessary, as with foreign national offenders and those without a legal basis for remaining in the UK, to confirm their identity and nationality with the receiving country and to obtain a travel document to facilitate a voluntary or enforced return.
It is a requirement of some foreign governments to interview such individuals to confirm identity/nationality and to agree to issue a travel document. These interviews are coordinated in a number of ways based on the circumstances of the person’s case and the particular process for re-documentation stipulated by the receiving foreign government. These include ad-hoc interviews for individuals and regular interview exercises with UK based officials from diplomatic missions, and central government officials visiting the UK.
The number of occasions these activities took place is not held in a format that is reportable.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of countries whose officials have conducted interviews;
Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Liberia, Malaysia, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Tunisia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 11 October 2018 to Question 178257 on Trade Promotion, if he will publish the visits undertaken by each Trade Envoy in the last year.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The table below outlines all overseas visits undertaken by the PM’s Trade Envoys from October 2017 – September 2018. In total they have undertaken 61 overseas visits to 41 markets in the last year.
Trade Envoy | Market visited | Date Markets visited: |
Adam Afriyie MP | Ghana Ghana, Guinea Ghana, Guinea | 8-11 November 2017 8-13 April 16-21 September 2018 |
Andrew Murrison MP | Morocco Tunisia | 7-10 February 2018 No visit |
Andrew Percy MP | Canada | 4-9 November 2017 8-12 February 2108 27-11 June 2018 |
Andrew Selous MP | South Africa | 6-9 February 2018 27-30 August 2018 |
Baroness Bonham-Carter | Mexico | 10-16 February 2018 23-30 September 2018 |
Baroness Morris | Kuwait | 5-8 December 2017 |
Baroness Nicholson | Azerbaijan, Kuwait(for Iraq conference) Turkmenistan | 12-16 February 2018 28 May-1 June 2018 |
Baroness Northover | Angola Zambia | 7-10 November 2017 19-21 September 2018 26-28 September 2018 8-16 February 2018 |
Ed Vaizey MP | Vietnam Cambodia, Laos Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos | 5-11 November 2017 8-12 February 2018 29 September - 3 October 2018 |
Jeremy Lefroy MP | Ethiopia | 8-11 November 2017 11-16 February 2018 28-31 May 2018 3-5 September 2018 |
John Howell MP | Nigeria | 6-9 November 2017 |
Julian Knight MP | Mongolia | 5-10 April 2018 19-24 September 2018 |
Lord Astor | Oman | 2-6 October 2017 11-14 February 2018 |
Lord Faulkner | Taiwan | 24-31 January 2018 17-22 September 2018 |
Lord Hollick | Tanzania | 1-4 October 2017 |
Lord Janvrin | Turkey | 2-5 October 2017 12-14 February 2018 |
Lord King | Saudi Arabia | 23-25 September 2017 |
Lord Lamont | Iran | 23-28 September 2018 |
Lord Popat | Uganda Rwanda | 16-24 November 2017 13-16 February 2018 |
Lord Risby | Algeria | 6-9 November 2017 29-1 May 2018 |
Mark Menzies MP | Columbia, Chile Columbia, Chile Peru | 4-10 November 2017 31 March-11 April 2018 23-28 September 2018 |
Mark Pritchard MP | Georgia, Armenia | 6-9 October 2017 1-10 November 2017 7-21 February 2018 6-11 June 2018 |
Paul Scully MP | Thailand | 5-11 November 2017 |
Ranil Jayawardena MP | Sri Lanka | 14-17 February 2018 17-21 September 2018 |
Rehman Chishti MP | Pakistan | 8-11 November 2017 11-15 February 2018 14-18 September 2018 |
Richard Graham MP | Malaysia Indonesia | 3-5 November 2017 31 July – 3 August 2018 11-13 April 2018 |
Rushanara Ali MP | Bangladesh | 20-31 July 2018 |
Simon Hart MP | Panama, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic | 10-13 April 2018 |
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson | Egypt | 28 July – 1 August 2018 22-27 September 2018 |
Asked by: Earl of Sandwich (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following their response to the International Development Committee’s report Definition and administration of ODA (HC 1011), whether any middle-income country on the World Bank’s list may be eligible for UK Official Development Assistance (ODA); and which of those countries are currently in receipt of UK ODA.
Answered by Lord Bates
The OECD DAC determines which countries are ODA eligible based on World Bank GNI per capita data. The list of ODA eligible countries consists of all low and Middle-Income countries except for those that are members of the G8 or the European Union. The UK provided bilateral ODA through a range of government departments to the following middle-income countries in 2016:
Middle Income Countries (Lower & Upper) in Receipt of 2016 bilateral UK ODA | ||
Albania | Gabon | Nicaragua |
Algeria | Georgia | Nigeria |
Antigua and Barbuda | Ghana | Pakistan |
Argentina | Grenada | Panama |
Armenia | Guatemala | Papua New Guinea |
Azerbaijan | Guyana | Paraguay |
Belarus | Honduras | Peru |
Belize | India | Philippines |
Bolivia | Indonesia | Serbia |
Bosnia-Herzegovina | Iran | Seychelles |
Botswana | Iraq | South Africa |
Brazil | Jamaica | Sri Lanka |
Cameroon | Jordan | St. Helena |
Cape Verde | Kazakhstan | St. Lucia |
Chile | Kosovo | St.Vincent & Grenadines |
China | Kyrgyz Republic | Swaziland |
Colombia | Lebanon | Syria |
Congo, Rep. | Libya | Thailand |
Costa Rica | Malaysia | Tunisia |
Cote d'Ivoire | Maldives | Turkey |
Cuba | Mauritius | Turkmenistan |
Dominica | Mexico | Ukraine |
Dominican Republic | Moldova | Uruguay |
Ecuador | Mongolia | Uzbekistan |
Egypt | Montenegro | Venezuela |
El Salvador | Montserrat | Vietnam |
Fiji | Morocco | West Bank & Gaza Strip |
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) | Namibia |
|
Source: Statistics on International Development 2017
Asked by: Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to the Iranian Government in relation to the recent missile attack on an Iranian Kurdish camp in Koya in the Kurdistan region in Iraq; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK has been following recent events in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq with concern.
Following the attack near Koya, Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Republic of Iraq travelled to Kurdistan Region of Iraq to speak to all parties alongside Consul General Erbil. On 13 September the Ambassador publicly condemned the attacks as disproportionate and dangerous.
Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran regularly raises our concerns over Iran's destabilising activity in the region, pressing the Government of Iran to play a more constructive role. Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials continue to engage regularly on this and other issues with Iran at all levels.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 22 of his Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2017-18, what the (a) 30 operations and (b) 25 countries are in which UK armed forces personnel are deployed.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The over 30 operations referred to in the Department's Annual Report and Accounts include:
BACKWELL
BRANTA
CABRIT
CATAN
CROSSWAYS
ELGIN
FAIRFIELD
HALLEX
INVOKER
KIPION
LITTEN
MANSIO
METRO
MODEST
MONOGRAM
NEWCOMBE
ORBITAL
RECOMPOSE
PANAKA
PERCIVAL
PRAISER
PRESIDIUM
SHADER
TAILPIN
TANGHAM
TORAL
TOSCA
TRAMAL
TRENTON
TURUS
VOGUL
The countries referred to in the Department's Annual Report and Accounts include:
Afghanistan
Bahrain
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Columbia
Cyprus
Democratic Republic of Congo
Egypt
Estonia
Iraq
Italy
Jordan
Kenya
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Kosovo
Kuwait
Libya
Mali
Niger
Nigeria
Pakistan
Poland
Somalia
South Sudan
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Some operational names and locations have been excluded for operational security. Changes in operational circumstances and the strategic environment affect where UK Armed Forces personnel are deployed.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which foreign armed forces the UK armed forces has trained in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The list below sets out the foreign states that were provided training and/or education by the UK Armed Forces for the period 25 July 2017 – 25 July 2018.
Afghanistan |
Albania |
Algeria |
Angola |
Anguilla |
Antigua and Barbuda |
Argentina |
Armenia |
Australia |
Austria |
Azerbaijan |
Bahamas, The |
Bahrain |
Bangladesh |
Barbados |
Belarus |
Belgium |
Belize |
Bermuda |
Bosnia & Herzegovina |
Botswana |
Brazil |
Brunei |
Bulgaria |
Cameroon |
Canada |
Chile |
China |
Colombia |
Cote D'Ivoire |
Croatia |
Cyprus |
Czech Republic |
Denmark |
Djibouti |
Dominican Republic |
East Timor |
Egypt |
Eritrea |
Estonia |
Ethiopia |
Fiji |
Finland |
France |
Gambia, The |
Georgia |
Germany |
Ghana |
Greece |
Guatemala |
Guyana |
Hungary |
Iceland |
India |
Indonesia |
Iraq |
Ireland |
Israel |
Italy |
Jamaica |
Japan |
Jordan |
Kazakhstan |
Kenya |
Kosovo |
Kuwait |
Kyrgyzstan |
Latvia |
Lebanon |
Liechtenstein |
Lithuania |
Luxembourg |
Macedonia |
Madagascar |
Malawi |
Malaysia |
Mali |
Malta |
Mauritania |
Mauritius |
Mexico |
Moldova |
Mongolia |
Montenegro |
Montserrat |
Morocco |
Nepal |
Netherlands |
New Zealand |
Niger |
Nigeria |
Norway |
Oman |
Pakistan |
Palestinian Autonomous Areas |
Papua New Guinea |
Paraguay |
Peru |
Philippines |
Poland |
Portugal |
Qatar |
Romania |
Rwanda |
Saudi Arabia |
Senegal |
Serbia |
Seychelles |
Sierra Leone |
Singapore |
Slovakia |
Slovenia |
Somalia |
South Africa |
South Korea |
Spain |
Sri Lanka |
St. Lucia |
Sudan |
Sweden |
Switzerland |
Tajikistan |
Tanzania |
Thailand |
Tonga |
Trinidad and Tobago |
Tunisia |
Turkey |
Uganda |
Ukraine |
United Arab Emirates |
Uruguay |
United States |
Uzbekistan |
Vanuatu |
Vietnam |
Zambia |
Zimbabwe |
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions (a) he and (b) officials of his Department have had with counterparts at the 38th session of the UN Human Rights Council on the situation of internally displaced people in Colombia.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Colombia's 52 year conflict has claimed over 8 million victims including more than 7 million displaced persons. In recent years, only the conflict in Syria has seen a larger number of IDPs caused by internal conflict.
Speaking times at the Human Rights Council are limited, so it is impossible to cover every country of concern in the UK intervention. On this occasion, the UK chose to prioritise raising Iraq, Syria, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the situation for IDPs had deteriorated significantly during recent months.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which markets of interest to the UK’s private sector exporters are restricted by (1) a sanctions regime, or (2) the UK’s foreign policy which limits ministerial support for those exporters.
Answered by Baroness Fairhead
HMG actively promotes international trade within a rules based international order. Maintaining this sometimes requires the application of sanctions. The UK currently implements multilateral trade sanctions set by the UN, EU, and OSCE relating to:
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burma, Central African Republic, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.
These sanctions regimes contain measures which may restrict the activities of UK exporters.
There are no policy restrictions on Ministerial support for exporters to markets not otherwise subject to sanctions.