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  • Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria were used to select Wales, Hampshire and Greater Manchester as the locations for the early adopter sites for the second phase trials of independent child trafficking advocates.

    Sarah Newton

    The early adopter sites were chosen because they offer a wide geographical coverage across England and Wales with the potential for differing levels and types of referrals, including children who may have been internally trafficked, as well as those that have been trafficked from abroad.

  • Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department of 28 June 2016, Official Report, columns 50-1WH, announcing a new child trafficking protection fund, (a) when that fund will be established, (b) how such funds will be distributed, (c) what types of organisations will be eligible to apply for the fund and (d) whether the fund will be targeted at initiatives taking place in the UK or overseas.

    Sarah Newton

    The Child Trafficking Protection Fund will be established later this year and further detail on the bidding process will be provided when the fund opens. The fund will have up to £3 million of Government funding initially available over the next three years. The fund has two main aims: to reduce the number of trafficked children from going missing and having contact with traffickers, and providing better support for children from states where we have seen consistently high numbers of trafficked children. The fund will support work at a local level, adding value to the existing provisions for child victims of trafficking. The fund will be open to organisations involved with child victims of trafficking and will be aimed at innovative projects that offer enhanced outcomes of care for victims, both nationally and internationally.

  • Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Mactaggart – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what mechanisms there are to monitor and evaluate the outcomes of children who received an independent child trafficking advocate under the 2014-15 trials of such advocates; and how her Department plans to evaluate the planned second phase trials in three early adopter sites of such advocates.

    Sarah Newton

    The evaluation of the 2014/15 trial of Independent Child Trafficking Advocates was completed in September 2015 and the evaluation findings were published in December 2015. Following the trial, children with an advocate were provided support to transition into existing trafficking or other support services.

    Independent Child Trafficking Advocates will be introduced in three early adopter sites. The Home Office will conduct an assessment through monitoring outcomes for children who receive an advocate and considering how the advocates were implemented in the three sites. This will be overseen and informed by an expert panel of independent individuals. The learning from the early adopter sites will be used to refine the model for Independent Child Trafficking Advocates to be rolled out across England and Wales.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure an effective balance between its policies on tackling radicalisation and protecting people at risk of Islamaphobic attacks.

    Sarah Newton

    The Government is determined to tackle hate crime and extremism wherever it occurs.

    The Government’s Prevent strategy, published in 2011, explicitly tackles all forms of terrorism. That includes protecting individuals who are at risk from far right and Neo-nazi extremism, as well as those vulnerable to Islamist extremism.

    Prevent is about safeguarding people who are at risk of radicalisation. Prevent does not target a specific faith or ethnic group. Rather, Prevent protects those who are targeted by terrorist recruiters. Currently the greatest threat comes from terrorist recruiters inspired by Daesh. Our Prevent programme will necessarily reflect this by prioritising support for vulnerable British Muslims, and working in partnership with British Muslim communities and civil society groups.

    The Prevent programme is implemented in a proportionate manner that takes into account the level of risk in any given area or institution. In some areas the risk of far right extremism may be significant and we would expect in those circumstances for Prevent activity to focus on the far right threat.

    Far right extremism often brings with it the threat of anti-Muslim or antisemitic attacks. We have a strong record of action against Islamophobia and antisemitism and deplore all religious or racially motivated crimes.

    We strongly condemn the increase in attacks on Muslims that have been seen in this country in recent years. We know the majority of people in United Kingdom join our condemnation, and we have seen great examples of individuals and communities standing together to tackle this hatred.

    Muslims make an enormous contribution to British society. They are all too often the victims of hatred and intolerance in this country and overseas. This Government is determined to act to protect British Muslims.

    The United Kingdom has in place one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world to protect communities from hostility, violence and bigotry. We will keep it under review to ensure it remains effective and appropriate in the face of new and emerging threats. We also published a new Cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan on 26 July which will drive forward action against all forms of hate crime, including anti-Muslim hatred. This will be taken forward in partnership with communities to ensure we target the harm that hate crime causes.

  • Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Chris Stephens – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 19 July 2016 to Question 42791, if she will publish the information her Department holds on registered social landlords for the provision of services to asylum seekers.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Home Office provides asylum seeker accommodation through contracts. Those providers have a range of landlords with whom they work to provide accommodation.

    There are no plans to publish information regarding the detailed measures or key performance indicators of individual providers or their properties.

  • Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Karl McCartney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karl McCartney on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people arrested on suspicion of illegally entering the UK between January 2013 and April 2016 have been (a) convicted of that offence and (b) subsequently removed from the UK.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    It would be a disproportionate cost to disaggregate this information.

  • Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the Government will make a commitment at the UN General Assembly meetings on refugees and migrants on 19 and 20 September 2016 to allow more refugees to reach the UK safely and legally.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government has no plans to introduce additional pathways for refugees to come to the UK. The UK is already a leading resettlement state, offering a number of safe and legal pathways for refugees. In the year ending June 2016, a total of 3,439 people were resettled in the UK.

    In addition to the 20,000 Syrian refugees and up to 3,000 vulnerable persons from the Middle East and North Africa region that the Government has committed to resettle by 2020, the UK has also committed to relocate unaccompanied refugee children from France, Greece and Italy. Under the family reunion policy we have reunited around 22,000 refugees with their immediate family over the past five years and will continue to do so. The Government supports the principle that those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. This allows vulnerable persons to receive help quickly rather than risking their lives on hazardous journeys into and across Europe or falling victim to criminal gangs who are exploiting the situation. Providing humanitarian aid in the region is the best way to provide much needed support to the majority of those fleeing persecution while working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to resettle the most vulnerable who cannot reasonably remain.

  • Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Monaghan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of excluding Scotland from the scope of the net migration target.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Our immigration system is designed to work for the whole of the UK and surveys show that people in Scotland want to see net migration reduced. We have a Scotland-specific Shortage Occupation List to accommodate skills shortages which are specific to Scotland. Applying substantially different immigration rules to different parts of the UK would complicate the immigration system, harming its integrity, and cause confusion for applicants and difficulties for employers who need the flexibility to deploy their staff to other parts of the UK.

  • Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of refugees the UK will accept in each of the next five years.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The migration crisis has seen a significant increase in the number of people claiming asylum across Europe, including in the UK. In the year ending June 2016, the Home Office granted protection to 11,700 people at initial decision, excluding appeals decisions. Whilst we cannot predict the number of future asylum claims made spontaneously, our approach will continue to be to intervene at every point in the migrant journey to address push factors, tackle organised crime, and provide humanitarian aid to the regions most affected.

    At the same time, we are committed to resettling vulnerable refugees who cannot effectively be supported in their region of origin via one of our four schemes. Under the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement scheme, the UK will resettle 20,000 individuals by the end of this Parliament. We have already resettled 2,646 since the scheme was expanded in October 2015. In addition, we will resettle up to 3,000 individuals by the end of this Parliament under the new Vulnerable Children Resettlement Scheme from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with several hundred arriving in the first year. Children will be resettled with their family or carers where appropriate. Under the Gateway resettlement scheme, we aim to resettle around 750 refugees per year who are in protracted situations where there is little prospect of being able to return home. The Mandate resettlement scheme is open to refugees who have a close family member in the UK who is willing to sponsor them. No overall quota is set for the Mandate scheme.

  • Dominic Raab – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Dominic Raab – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dominic Raab on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national offenders have successfully challenged deportation from the UK on human rights grounds in each of the last 10 years; and how many such claims relied upon (a) Article 3, (b) Article 8 and (c) another Article of the European Convention on Human Rights.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The following table shows the total number of foreign national offenders who have successfully challenged deportation from the UK on human rights grounds for the financial years 2006-07 to 2015-16. Data prior to this date is not available as it was not captured by the Home Office central reporting system.

    Please note that the Home Office is not able to provide data on successful appeals where claims are broken down by Article 3, Article 8 and another Article on the European Convention on Human Rights. Individually this information is not held centrally and can only be collated at disproportionate cost.