The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of suspected war criminals in the UK.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The Home Office has not made such an estimate.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gill Furniss on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, under what circumstances documents associated with (a) asylum applications and (b) other forms of visa application are retained by her Department after verification.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Documents associated with an asylum claim will be retained when :-
1. The claim is ongoing, if a claimant is subsequently granted leave their passports or identifying documents will be returned to them at that point.
2. When a negative decision is made we will retain documents that may be required to facilitate removal, the power to do this comes from Section17 of the Asylum and Immigration (treatment of claimants Act, etc) 2004.
3. Any documents verified as being non genuine will be retained for disposal by the National Document Fraud Unit.
4. In EEA/EU asylum claims if removal, deportation or extradition is being pursued, any documents must be retained until a decision is taken. If removal is not being pursued, for example if the claimant is exercising their free movement rights, any documents should be returned.
A document that has been submitted with a visa application will be retained for 10 years if the document has been verified as being false and has been relied upon in a refusal decision. If it has been verified as being genuine, copies will be kept for up to 2 years. A copy of the application form is retained electronically with the case record.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gill Furniss on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many requests for confirmation of the right to work in the UK were received by the Employer Checking Service in the last 12 months; and how many such requests were confirmed.
Mr Robert Goodwill
81,642 checks were received by the Employer Checking Service between 1st September 2015 and 31st August 2016. 53,006 of these checks confirmed the subjects right to work in the UK.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2016 to Questions 47748 and 47749, on terrorism: British nationals abroad, how many people have been charged with terrorism offences.
Mr Ben Wallace
Pursuant to my answer of the 18 October, the number of individuals suspected of involvement in acts of terrorism or criminal matters who are arrested and then formally charged is recorded and collated in the Home Office Quarterly Statistical Bulletin which was last published on 22 September 2016.
These statistics do not disaggregate arrests, charges and convictions relating exclusively to those charged whilst abroad, just as they do not for overseas returnees.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent staff UK Visas and Immigration employs on its North West MP Account Management Team.
Mr Robert Goodwill
The North West MP Account Management Team employs 9.8 full time equivalent (FTE). However, it relies on expertise and contributions from across the business to enable the service to provide comprehensive and helpful replies.
To try and quantify the full extent of UKVI work on Members’ immigration enquiries alone, staff costs to collate this information would exceed the £850 threshold for answering Parliamentary Questions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Crausby on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time for a final decision on a visitor’s visa application was in each of the last five years.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Published data on visa processing times is available from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance is available for police forces on their response to complaints from consumers who find out that accommodation booked and paid for through Airbnb does not exist.
Brandon Lewis
The type of fraud committed in this scenario is rental fraud; if an individual thinks they have fallen victim to any type of fraud or cyber crime they should immediately report it to Action Fraud. Action Fraud is the national reporting centre for all frauds and cyber crimes; following receipt of a crime report it will then pass it to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) who will assess it for viable leads. Where there is enough evidence available and a viable lead, NFIB will disseminate a crime package to the most appropriate force to launch an investigatory response.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Winnick on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will place in the Library the correspondence she had with Judge Goddard asking for her to appear before the Home Office committee after her resignation as chair of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
Sarah Newton
On 6 October 2016, Mark Sedwill, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, wrote to Dame Lowell Goddard, former chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, to pass on a request from the Home Affairs Select Committee that she appear before the Committee. The Committee has published the text of this letter on its website.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the immigration status of European Economic Area citizens with permanent residence status in the UK will be affected by the renegotiation of the UK’s membership with the EU.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Under EU law, European Economic Area (EEA) nationals qualify for a right of permanent residence in the UK provided that certain conditions are met. 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 would not be possible are if British citizens’ rights in other EU Member States were not protected in return in the course of agreement with the EU.
For those EEA nationals who are in the UK and have a right of permanent residence, it is not mandatory to apply for documentation confirming that right. Statistics of decisions and grants of permanent residence documentation issued to EEA nationals are published quarterly in table ee_02_q of Immigration Statistics. The most recent edition is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2016/list-of-tables#european-economic-area-eea
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-10-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many European Economic Area citizens in the UK have permanent residence cards; and how many applications for such cards there have been in each of the last 12 months.
Mr Robert Goodwill
Under EU law, European Economic Area (EEA) nationals qualify for a right of permanent residence in the UK provided that certain conditions are met. 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 would not be possible are if British citizens’ rights in other EU Member States were not protected in return in the course of agreement with the EU.
For those EEA nationals who are in the UK and have a right of permanent residence, it is not mandatory to apply for documentation confirming that right. Statistics of decisions and grants of permanent residence documentation issued to EEA nationals are published quarterly in table ee_02_q of Immigration Statistics. The most recent edition is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2016/list-of-tables#european-economic-area-eea