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  • Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consultation her Department has undertaken on the draft adults at risk policy for vulnerable people detained under immigration powers.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Stephen Shaw carried out a comprehensive consultation in preparing his report of his review of the welfare of vulnerable people in immigration detention and the adults at risk policy, which will come into force on 12 September 2016, forms part of the Government’s response to Mr Shaw’s review. The Government has seen no reason to duplicate this in developing the adults at risk policy. However, when the draft policy was published on 26 May 2016, the Government wrote to a wide range of relevant non-governmental organisations and offered them the opportunity to discuss it. Subsequently Home Office officials held meetings with a number of interested organisations, and received written representations, and the views of these organisations have been taken into account as the policy has been developed further.

  • Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her Department plans to measure the effect of the adults at risk policy for vulnerable people detained under immigration powers.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Consideration is being given to arrangements for measuring the impact of the adults at risk policy and other initiatives aimed at improving the safeguarding of vulnerable people in immigration detention. The expectation is that these initiatives will result in a reduction in the number of the most vulnerable who are detained. The Government intends to ask Stephen Shaw to carry out a short review next year in order to assess progress against the key actions from his previous report.

  • Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect on people detained in immigration removal centres of there being no time limit on immigration detention.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Although there is no formal time limit on detention for the purposes of immigration removal, individuals cannot be detained indefinitely. However, the Government commissioned Stephen Shaw to carry out a review of the welfare of vulnerable people in immigration detention and, as part of this, Mr Shaw commissioned Professor Mary Bosworth to assess the evidence in respect of the impact of immigration detention on mental health. The Government has been taking forward reforms of immigration detention in the light of Mr Shaw’s report.

  • Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to introduce a maximum time limit on the length of time for which a person can be detained under immigration powers.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government does not believe that it is appropriate for there to be a formal time limit on immigration detention. A statutory time limit would serve only to encourage individuals to frustrate asylum and immigration processes in order to reach a point at which they have to be released.

    However, the Government is committed to ensuring that individuals are detained for the shortest period necessary and is introducing a range of reforms to the way in which immigration detention is managed, including greater judicial oversight of immigration detention through the Immigration Act 2016. Section 11 of Schedule 10 imposes a duty to arrange consideration of bail before the First-tier Tribunal at four months from the point of detention, or the most recent Tribunal consideration of bail, and every four months thereafter.

  • Amanda Solloway – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Amanda Solloway – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Amanda Solloway on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the Government will take steps to tackle the abuse of anabolic steroids for image and performance enhancing purposes; and if she will bring forward legislative proposals to make the recreational use of such drugs illegal.

    Brandon Lewis

    Information and advice about anabolic steroids, including the health risks associated with using anabolic steroids, is provided by Talk to FRANK and NHS Choices.

    In July 2015, Public Health England published advice for local authorities on commissioning services to prevent and treat harms caused by image and performance enhancing drugs (http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/providing-effective-services-for-people-who-use-image-and-performance-enhancing-drugs.pdf).

    Specified anabolic steroids are controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 as class C drugs. The Government has no current plans to review the legislative framework on anabolic steroids to include the possession offence. We are keeping the situation under review working closely with our independent experts, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

  • John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to hold urgent discussions with her French counterparts on border controls at Dover and other British ports.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Home Secretary met with her French counterpart, Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, on Tuesday 30 August.

    The two nations committed to a number of specific steps, including:

    Further securing the ports and tunnel in the region – Britain has already provided around £85 million to reinforce security;

    Addressing humanitarian challenges in Calais, where around 7,000 migrants are now gathered – including 5,000 without housing;

    Continuing to work together to return illegal migrants in Calais who are not in need of protection;

    Bringing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to the UK when in their best interest.

    A joint statement from both governments after talks reaffirmed the commitment to working together to strengthen the security of our shared border, and to preserve the vital economic link supported by the juxtaposed controls in Calais.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is her policy that EU citizens who have acquired permanent residence under Free Movement Directive 2004/38 will automatically retain their permanent residence in the UK after the UK has left the EU.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Prime Minister has been clear that she wants to protect the status of EU nationals already living in the UK, and the only circumstances in which that wouldn’t be possible is if British citizens’ rights in other EU Member States were not protected in return.

  • Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many former special advisers of her Department submitted applications under the business appointment rules between June 2014 and October 2015.

    Sarah Newton

    The information requested is available at:

    www.gov.uk/government/organisations/advisory-committee-on-business-appointments

    where details of all recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments in response to applications submitted under these rules are published.

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people paid (a) issue fees and (b) hearing fees in equal pay cases in each year since 2010.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    Information on Employment Tribunal fees is published in the Tribunals and Gender Recognition Statistics Quarterly on gov.uk.

    Data on how many people have paid fees in equal pay cases is not held centrally.

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many equal pay cases were not taken forward after post-claim conciliation in each year since 2010.

    Margot James

    We are currently collating this information and will place this in the Libraries in due course.