Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of robbery and shoplifting offences in Hertfordshire; and what steps they plan to take to tackle those crimes in that area.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police recorded crime for England and Wales showed a 30% annual rise in shoplifting offences and 8% in robbery offences for year ending March 2024. Hertfordshire Police Force saw a 25% rise in shoplifting and a 35% rise in police recorded robbery offences in the same period.
In cases of shoplifting, more and more offenders are using violence and abuse against shopworkers. We will not stand for this. This Government will introduce a new offence for assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. We will also end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low-value shoplifting of goods under £200.
Tackling serious violence, including robbery, is a priority for this Government. One of the ways we are doing this is through close working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Personal Robbery Steering Group.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the sufficiency of funding to the National Police Air Service.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) provides borderless, round-the-clock, crewed police air support across England and Wales.
The Home Office supports NPAS through the provision of an annual capital grant. For the Financial Year 2024/25, this grant is £11.46m. The NPAS revenue budget is funded through contributions from police forces. For Financial Year 2024/25 this budget is £49.6m.
Funding for future financial years will be agreed as part of the ongoing Spending Review.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to consult local authorities before Government contractors decide to use hotels in those respective areas for the purpose of housing asylum seekers.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
In ensuring that views of key external stakeholders are sought and partners engaged with, the Home Office has dedicated Regional Engagement Leads who liaise directly with local authorities or via Regional Strategic Migration Partnerships (SMP). SMPs are Local Government led partnerships funded by, but independent of, the Home Office, whose role is to coordinate and support delivery of national programmes in asylum and refugee schemes as well as agreed regional and devolved migration priorities.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to allowing local authorities to veto the use of hotels for the purpose of housing asylum seekers in their respective areas.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
In ensuring that views of key external stakeholders are sought and partners engaged with, the Home Office has dedicated Regional Engagement Leads who liaise directly with local authorities or via Regional Strategic Migration Partnerships (SMP). SMPs are Local Government led partnerships funded by, but independent of, the Home Office, whose role is to coordinate and support delivery of national programmes in asylum and refugee schemes as well as agreed regional and devolved migration priorities.
Asked by: Lord Reid of Cardowan (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of current labour shortages in various industries, how they are adjusting immigration policies to attract and retain skilled workers from abroad.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Net migration is too high and must be reduced. This means employers should look to the domestic labour market to nurture and develop the skills where they can.
This is why we are setting out a different approach – one that links migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policies – so immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems here at home.
As a first step, we have commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to identify the reasons for the reliance on international recruitment in key sectors, including IT and engineering.
The MAC commission has been published on their website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/mac-commissioned-to-review-it-and-engineering-sectors
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to review the working of the UK–US extradition treaty.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is no current intention to review the UK-US Extradition Treaty. The UK-US Extradition Treaty continues to produce tangible results, bringing justice to victims in both the UK and US.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, under the policy whereby asylum seekers whose claims have been outstanding for more than 12 months through no fault of their own can request permission to work in jobs on the Shortage Occupation List published by the Home Office, how many such requests have been (1) made, and (2) granted, since the policy was introduced; and how many asylum seekers have taken up employment under that policy.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asylum seekers granted permission to work are restricted by the Home Office to apply for jobs on the Immigration Salary List which replaced the Shortage Occupation List on 4 April 2024. The list itself is based on expert advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee, who will continue to review those occupations.
Asylum seekers are provided with accommodation and support to meet their essential living needs if they would otherwise be destitute whilst their claim is considered.
We also encourage asylum seekers to undertake volunteering activities, so long as it does not amount to unpaid work. Volunteering provides a valuable contribution to their local community and may help them to integrate into society if they ultimately qualify for protection.
The Home Office are unable to report how many asylum seekers have applied for and been accepted for permission to work as this information is not held in a reportable format or forms part of published data.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to alter the current arrangements for asylum seekers whose claim has been outstanding for more than 12 months through no fault of their own to be able to request permission to work in jobs on the Shortage Occupation List published by the Home Office.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asylum seekers granted permission to work are restricted by the Home Office to apply for jobs on the Immigration Salary List which replaced the Shortage Occupation List on 4 April 2024. The list itself is based on expert advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee, who will continue to review those occupations.
Asylum seekers are provided with accommodation and support to meet their essential living needs if they would otherwise be destitute whilst their claim is considered.
We also encourage asylum seekers to undertake volunteering activities, so long as it does not amount to unpaid work. Volunteering provides a valuable contribution to their local community and may help them to integrate into society if they ultimately qualify for protection.
The Home Office are unable to report how many asylum seekers have applied for and been accepted for permission to work as this information is not held in a reportable format or forms part of published data.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Manchester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to increase the minimum income threshold for applications for a (1) spousal, and (2) family, visa.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
To help ensure we reach the right balance and have a solid evidence base for any change, the Home Secretary has announced her intention to commission the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules. The government will consider their recommendations before making any changes.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what form of accommodation has been provided to migrants who were staying on the Bibby Stockholm.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office continues to identify a range of options to minimise the use of expensive hotels and ensure better use of public money, tackling backlogs to reduce accommodation demands across the system as a whole.
The AASC Statement of Requirements below gives a detailed breakdown of all of the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and the standards we expect: http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2018-1112/AASC_-_Schedule_2_-_Statement_of_Requirements.pdf (opens in a new tab).