Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many illegal migrants have been returned to Albania since the publication of the UK-Albania Joint Communique: Enhancing bilateral Cooperation in areas of common interest on 13 December 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on detected irregular arrivals in the ‘Irregular Migration to the UK Quarterly Release’. Quarterly data on detected irregular arrivals broken down by method of entry and nationality are published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular Migration detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to end June 2023.
Further provisional small boat arrivals data is published in the data tables accompanying the ‘Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act’. Numbers of arrivals by nationality are published in table IMB_01b for Q2 and July 2023.
The Home Office also publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on returns by destination are published in table Ret_D02 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the end of March 2023.
Further provisional returns data is published in the data tables accompanying the ‘Statistics relating to the Illegal Migration Act’. Quarterly numbers of returns of Albanians and all other nationalities are published in table IMB_05 up to the end of July 2023. Since the signing of the UK-Albania Joint Communique on 13 December 2022, the UK has returned 2,898 Albanian nationals to Albania and covers the period up to 31 July 2023.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Albanian nationals have been removed from the UK since 2013.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on returns by nationality are published in table Ret_D01 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to December 2023. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the ‘summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on returns by nationality.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the prisoner transfer agreement with Albania.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
A new Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania came into force in May 2022. In May 2023, we announced a complementary arrangement whereby the UK Government has agreed to provide support to modernise and expand the Albanian prison system and in return Albania has agreed to accept the return of up to 200 Albanian Nationals currently serving sentences of 4 years or more in the UK. The arrangement will save taxpayers’ money, as it is cheaper to house prisoners in Albania than in England and Wales and will also free up capacity in our prisons.
The deal builds on the prisoner transfer agreement signed between the UK and Albania in 2021, which came into force in May 2022. This implementation package will ensure Albania has the right processes and prison capacity in place, meaning transfers can now proceed at pace.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help Albanian asylum seekers at serious risk or violence from gangs in Albania.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Every asylum claim is assessed on it’s merits.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government who are the Trade Envoys; to which country each Trade Envoy has been assigned; and what is the party affiliation of each Trade Envoy and the length of time in post.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston
There are currently 36 Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys and information as below.
Country | Trade Envoy | Date of PM Appointment | ||
LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN | ||||
Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina | Mark Menzies MP (Con) | September 2016 & September 2017 for Argentina | ||
Panama, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica | Baroness Hooper of Liverpool (Con) | October 2020 | ||
Brazil | Marco Longhi MP (Con) | August 2021 | ||
AFRICA | ||||
Algeria | Lord Risby of Haverhill (Con) | November 2012 | ||
Uganda & Rwanda (watching brief for DRC) | Lord Popat (Con) | January 2016 | ||
Egypt and Cameroon | Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP (DUP) | January 2016 & August 2021 for Cameroon | ||
Nigeria | Helen Grant MP (Con) | October 2020 | ||
Kenya | Theo Clarke MP (Con) | Reappointed May 2023 | ||
South Africa & Mauritius | Andrew Selous MP(Con) | September 2017 & January 2023 for Mauritius | ||
Tanzania | Lord Walney (Non-Affiliated) | August 2021 | ||
Ghana | Baroness Hoey (Non-Affiliated) | August 2021 | ||
Tunisia & Libya | Yvonne Fovargue MP (Lab) | March 2022 | ||
Angola, Zambia & Ethiopia | Laurence Robertson MP (Con) | Reappointed March 2023 | ||
MIDDLE EAST | ||||
Israel | Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated) | October 2020 | ||
Iran | Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Con) | January 2016 | ||
Lebanon | Lord Risby of Haverhill (Con) | August 2019 | ||
Iraq | Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (Con) | January 2014 | ||
Jordan, Kuwait & Palestine Territories | Baroness Morris of Bolton (Con) | November 2012 | ||
UAE | Gareth Thompson MP (Con) | March 2023 | ||
| ||||
Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan | Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (Con) | April 2016 & Kazakhstan July 2017 | ||
Mongolia | Daniel Kawczynski MP (Con) | October 2020 | ||
Ukraine | Baroness Meyer (Con) | October 2020 | ||
Turkey | Lord Hutton (Lab) | May 2022 | ||
EUROPE | ||||
Switzerland & Liechtenstein | Sir Stephen Timms MP (Lab) | August 2021 | ||
Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia) | Martin Vickers MP (Con) | October 2020 | ||
APAC | ||||
Australia | Lord Botham (Crossbench) | August 2021 | ||
Taiwan | Lord Faulkner (Lab) | January 2016 | ||
Japan | Greg Clark MP (Con) | May 2022 | ||
Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei & Vietnam | Mark Garnier MP (Con) | October 2020 & for Vietnam January 2023 | ||
Singapore | Lord Sarfraz (Con) | January 2022 | ||
Republic of Korea | Sir John Whittingdale (Con) | May 2022 | ||
Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines & ASEAN | Richard Graham MP (Con) | Reappointed March 2023 | ||
Cambodia & Laos | Heather Wheeler MP (Con) | Reappointed March 2023 | ||
New Zealand | David Mundell MP (Con) | Reappointed March 2023 | ||
SOUTH ASIA | ||||
Bangladesh | Rushanara Ali MP (Lab) | March 2016 | ||
Sri Lanka | Lord Mervyn Davies of Abersoch (Crossbench) | October 2020 | ||
North America | ||||
Canada | Dame Maria Miller MP (Con) | May 2022 | ||
USA (specific focus on driving trade promotion with existing MOU states) | Sir Conor Burns MP (Con) | May 2023 | ||
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effectiveness of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
A new Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania came into force in May 2022.
In May 2023, we announced a complementary arrangement whereby the UK Government has agreed to provide support to modernise and expand the Albanian prison system and in return Albania has agreed to accept the return of up to 200 Albanian Nationals currently serving sentences of 4 years or more in the UK.
The arrangement will save taxpayers’ money, as it is cheaper to house prisoners in Albania than in England and Wales, and will also free up capacity in our prisons.
We expect to see the first transfers under this agreement later this year. The deal builds on the prisoner transfer agreement signed between the UK and Albania in 2021, which came into force in May 2022. This implementation package will ensure Albania has the right processes and prison capacity in place, meaning transfers can now proceed at pace.
Albanians are the most common nationality in the Foreign National Offender population, making up approximately 14% of the total Foreign National Offender prison population. Between January 2021 and December 2022, 1,484 Albanian FNOs were removed from the UK (from custody and the community).
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent steps he has taken with Cabinet colleagues to help secure international (a) partnerships and (b) other agreements that help tackle illegal immigration to the UK.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We are prioritising international engagement to secure more ambitious partnerships to tackle irregular migration and destroy the business model of organised immigration crime. These include a multi-year operational funding plan with France, a new UK-Italy strategic migration partnership and deepening cooperation with Albania. We have recently announced a new partnership with Bulgaria, as well as negotiations on a new working arrangement between the UK and EU border agency Frontex.
We are also prioritising engagement on migration through multilateral fora, including most recently at the Council of Europe and European Political Community summits.
Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of illegal migrants in prisons.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Foreign national offenders (FNOs) should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them and more than 13,000 have been removed between January 2019 and December 2022.
We are doing all we can to ensure that FNOs cannot frustrate their removal process through new provisions introduced by the Nationality and Borders Act and the Illegal Migration Bill. The Act makes it easier and quicker to remove FNOs and those with no right to be in the UK. It extends the period an FNO can be removed from prison under the early removal scheme (ERS) from a maximum of 9 months to 12 months, providing the minimum requisite period has been served.
The UK and Albania signed a Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania in July 2021 which commits that Albanian nationals in prisons in England and Wales serving sentences of 4 years or more will be sent back to serve the remainder of their sentence in Albanian prisons.
In May 2023, the UK and Albanian governments agreed a ground-breaking arrangement which builds on this agreement that will see hundreds of Albanian prisoners returned to their home country in exchange for UK support to help modernise the Albanian prison system.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, with reference to her oral Answer to the Question from the hon. Member for Stockport on 20 April 2023, Official Report, column 386, when she plans to send details of the Home Office surgery to the hon. Member.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Following Business Questions on the 20th April 2023 I wrote to the Home Office to raise this matter. I understand that the Home Office has now contacted the hon. Member for Stockport to provide details of the next surgery near his constituency and that the case raised on the 20th April 2023 has now been resolved.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average amount of state pension paid to individuals who live outside the UK is; and if he will provide a breakdown of the average state pension payment in each country in which recipients reside.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In November 2020, the average (mean) amount of State Pension paid to individuals who live outside the UK was £70.61 per week.
Table 1. Average Amount of State Pension paid to individuals who live outside the UK, November 2020
Residency | Mean Weekly State Pension Amount |
Outside United Kingdom | £ 70.61 |
Source: Stat-Xplore - Home (dwp.gov.uk)
Below is a table of the average (mean) amount of State Pension paid to individuals who live outside the UK, broken down by country of residence, in November 2020.
Table 2. Average Amount of State Pension by Country of Residence, November 2020
Country of Residence | Mean Weekly State Pension Amount |
Abroad - Not known | £ 112.62 |
Albania | £ 110.57 |
Alderney | £ 126.99 |
Algeria | £ 62.41 |
Andorra | £ 94.96 |
Anguilla | £ 64.93 |
Antigua | £ 74.02 |
Argentina | £ 65.18 |
Aruba | £ 60.29 |
Ascension Island | £ 91.68 |
Australia | £ 50.09 |
Austria | £ 49.24 |
Azerbaijan | £ 166.77 |
Bahamas | £ 66.64 |
Bahrain | £ 97.27 |
Bangladesh | £ 39.49 |
Barbados | £ 116.97 |
Belarus | £ 111.17 |
Belgium | £ 63.62 |
Belize | £ 85.01 |
Bermuda | £ 81.36 |
Bolivia | £ 106.19 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | £ 73.12 |
Botswana | £ 75.98 |
Brazil | £ 81.20 |
Brunei | £ 121.78 |
Bulgaria | £ 122.47 |
Burkina Faso | £ 54.09 |
Cambodia | £ 119.76 |
Cameroon | £ 58.81 |
Canada | £ 46.34 |
Cape Verde | £ 52.18 |
Cayman Islands | £ 89.42 |
Chile | £ 72.13 |
China | £ 96.39 |
Colombia | £ 89.09 |
Cook Islands | £ 57.92 |
Costa Rica | £ 81.75 |
Cyprus | £ 122.54 |
Denmark | £ 58.40 |
Dom Commonwealth (Dominica) | £ 77.73 |
Dominican Republic | £ 107.52 |
Dutch Caribbean | £ 67.76 |
Ecuador | £ 85.95 |
Egypt | £ 78.64 |
El Salvador | £ 80.36 |
Equatorial Guinea | £ 142.11 |
Ethiopia | £ 88.34 |
Falkland Islands and Dependencies | £ 85.64 |
Faroe Islands | £ 33.01 |
Fiji | £ 73.66 |
Finland | £ 58.89 |
France | £ 113.52 |
French Overseas Departments | £ 84.34 |
French Polynesia | £ 55.84 |
Gambia | £ 91.46 |
Germany | £ 46.48 |
Ghana | £ 56.69 |
Gibraltar | £ 100.77 |
Greece | £ 109.44 |
Greenland | £ 23.21 |
Grenada | £ 77.33 |
Guam | £ 83.49 |
Guatemala | £ 77.73 |
Guernsey | £ 84.86 |
Guyana | £ 60.60 |
Honduras | £ 79.02 |
Hong Kong | £ 85.42 |
Hungary | £ 102.32 |
Iceland | £ 71.68 |
India | £ 50.10 |
Indonesia | £ 106.53 |
Iran | £ 70.85 |
Iraq | £ 64.11 |
Ireland | £ 66.41 |
Isle of Man | £ 127.85 |
Israel | £ 101.27 |
Italy | £ 56.79 |
Jamaica | £ 116.05 |
Japan | £ 46.97 |
Jersey | £ 70.02 |
Jordan | £ 67.90 |
Kazakhstan | £ 124.13 |
Kenya | £ 79.34 |
Kuwait | £ 103.54 |
Kyrgyzstan | £ 76.07 |
Laos | £ 100.66 |
Lebanon | £ 88.20 |
Lesotho | £ 59.64 |
Liechtenstein | £ 28.62 |
Luxembourg | £ 83.34 |
Macau | £ 77.52 |
Madagascar | £ 62.23 |
Malawi | £ 71.90 |
Malaysia | £ 77.87 |
Malta | £ 104.22 |
Mauritius | £ 108.25 |
Mexico | £ 74.98 |
Moldova | £ 124.94 |
Monaco | £ 111.96 |
Montserrat | £ 65.67 |
Morocco | £ 75.51 |
Mozambique | £ 74.56 |
Myanmar | £ 84.84 |
Namibia | £ 70.17 |
Nepal | £ 63.99 |
Netherlands | £ 55.81 |
Nevis, St Kitts-Nevis | £ 75.56 |
New Caledonia | £ 79.61 |
New Zealand | £ 46.44 |
Nicaragua | £ 79.72 |
Nigeria | £ 27.65 |
Norfolk Island | £ 55.18 |
North Macedonia | £ 24.20 |
Norway | £ 58.24 |
Oman | £ 89.53 |
Pakistan | £ 48.74 |
Panama | £ 96.96 |
Papua New Guinea | £ 75.49 |
Paraguay | £ 68.41 |
Peru | £ 88.02 |
Philippines | £ 138.86 |
Poland | £ 59.39 |
Portugal | £ 119.47 |
Puerto Rico | £ 77.32 |
Qatar | £ 113.55 |
Republic of Croatia | £ 62.10 |
Republic of Estonia | £ 78.98 |
Republic of Georgia | £ 129.54 |
Republic of Latvia | £ 68.34 |
Republic of Lithuania | £ 42.71 |
Republic of Slovenia | £ 60.38 |
Romania | £ 99.40 |
Russia | £ 85.51 |
Saint Helena & Dependencies | £ 89.27 |
San Marino | £ 29.33 |
Sark | £ 117.68 |
Saudi Arabia | £ 86.88 |
Senegal | £ 74.13 |
Serbia | £ 123.58 |
Seychelles | £ 79.10 |
Sierra Leone | £ 52.66 |
Singapore | £ 89.20 |
Solomon Islands | £ 79.08 |
Somalia | £ 44.20 |
South Africa | £ 56.52 |
South Korea | £ 41.69 |
Spain | £ 120.61 |
Sri Lanka | £ 59.98 |
St Lucia | £ 76.63 |
St Vincent & Grenadines | £ 80.10 |
State Union of Serbia and Montenegro | £ 53.44 |
Sudan | £ 71.27 |
Suriname | £ 151.95 |
Swaziland | £ 79.26 |
Sweden | £ 57.52 |
Switzerland | £ 51.98 |
Syria | £ 63.61 |
Tahiti | £ 77.00 |
Taiwan | £ 105.85 |
Tanzania | £ 87.61 |
Thailand | £ 119.10 |
The Czech Republic | £ 92.30 |
The Slovak Republic | £ 49.82 |
Togo | £ 50.10 |
Tonga | £ 73.36 |
Tours (Individuals on Tour) | £ 133.34 |
Trinidad & Tobago | £ 55.37 |
Tunisia | £ 88.16 |
Turkey | £ 132.24 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | £ 118.32 |
Uganda | £ 88.33 |
Ukraine | £ 115.86 |
United Arab Emirates | £ 107.46 |
United States | £ 74.19 |
United States Minor Outlying Islands | £ 75.89 |
Uruguay | £ 77.74 |
Vanuatu | £ 85.86 |
Venezuela | £ 67.62 |
Vietnam | £ 125.09 |
Virgin Islands (British) | £ 91.77 |
Virgin Islands (USA) | £ 72.74 |
Western Samoa | £ 34.12 |
Yemen | £ 42.90 |
Zambia | £ 75.67 |
Zimbabwe | £ 48.98 |
Source: Stat-Xplore - Home (dwp.gov.uk)