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  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time employees were employed in (a) the Case Resolution Directorate and (b) the Case Assurance and Audit Unit in each year of those bodies’ existence.

    Karen Bradley

    The Case Resolution Directorate (CRD) employed a total of 1300 caseworkers in
    40 regional teams during its existence. It is not possible to provide a
    breakdown by each year that CRD was in existence.

    The Case Assurance and Audit Unit (CAAU) employed 98 Full Time Equivalent (FTE)
    staff in 2011, 134 FTE staff in 2012 and 224 FTE staff in 2013. FTE means that
    part time employees are counted by the proportion of full time hours they work,
    so that staff working half the time of an equivalent full time colleague would
    count as 0.5 FTE.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost was of renaming (a) the Case Resolution Directorate in 2011 and (b) the Case Assurance and Audit Unit in 2013.

    Karen Bradley

    It is not possible to answer the question, as information is not held in the
    appropriate format and to extract the data would incur disproportionate cost.

  • David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the statement of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 206, on student visas, on what date her Department first became aware of the systematic cheating taking place in the tests of the Educational Testing Service.

    James Brokenshire

    Since the last election, the Government has taken action to reduce and control
    immigration and to crack down on the abuse of the system which the previous
    government failed to address. We have kept the main immigration routes to
    Britain under review and remain vigilant against abuse of the student visa
    system. Around 750 education sponsors have been removed from the register of
    those entitled to bring overseas students to the UK. We now know that almost
    400 of these were linked to the sponsorship of people who obtained invalid ETS
    certificates. Abuse of the student visa route has been the subject of various
    lines of inquiry for some time, but Immigration Enforcement officers, together
    with officials from UK Visas and Immigration and with the support of the
    National Crime Agency, began conducting a detailed and wide-ranging
    investigation into actions by organised criminals to falsify English language
    tests provided by ETS at the start of February.

  • David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the statement of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 206, what the terms of reference are of the working group established, who the members of that group are and when that group is first expected to meet; and if she will make a written statement to the House on the conclusion of that group’s work.

    James Brokenshire

    The initial members invited to join the working group are:
    • Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS)
    • Universities UK (UUK)
    • UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA)
    • Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)
    • Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCEW)
    • Scottish Funding Council
    • National Union of Student (NUS)
    • British Council
    • UCAS
    • Association of Colleges (AoC)
    • Guild HE
    • Russell Group
    • Welsh Assembly Government

    The first working group meeting took place on 7 July.

    The draft terms of reference were discussed at the first meeting and will be
    finalised in discussion with working group partners. Once finalised, a copy
    will be placed in the Library of the House.

    As I stated to the House on 24 June, the Home Office will provide regular
    updates to the House on progress with this work.

  • David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the statement of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 206, on student visas, how many students wrongly awarded language certificates (a) remain in the UK, (b) have an address known to her Department and (c) have been deported.

    James Brokenshire

    As I stated on 24 June in my statement to Parliament, the Home Office will provide regular updates to the House on progress with work to remove these students and on further information we receive from ETS.

  • David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the statement of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 206, on student visas, what due diligence tests her Department undertook on the Educational Testing Service prior to awarding the company a contract for delivering language tests for visa applications.

    James Brokenshire

    The licence with Secure English Language Testing providers is clear that
    providers must put measures in place to combat abuse and any concerns regarding
    fraud or abuse should be reported to the Home Office. All third-party service
    providers, whether they are employers, education establishments or test
    providers, must take their obligations seriously or face the removal of their
    licence to work with us.

  • David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    David Hanson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the statement of 24 June 2014, Official Report, column 206, on student visas, whether she is seeking financial compensation from the Educational Testing Service.

    James Brokenshire

    Investigations are on-going and all potential remedies are being pursued.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost was of running (a) the Case Resolution Directorate, (b) the Case Assurance and Audit Unit and (c) the Older Live Cases Unit in each year of those bodies’ operations.

    Karen Bradley

    The operational costs of running the Case Resolution Directorate (excluding
    enforcement costs, detention and removal escort costs or asylum and immigration
    tribunal costs) was approximately £32 million per year. The costs are inclusive
    of an outsourced administrative function in 2009-2011. Support costs for
    applicants were accounted for separately for this period.

    The total running costs of the Case Assurance and Audit Unit was £27.4 million
    (2011/ 2012) and £19. 5million (2012/ 2013). The total running costs of the Older Live
    Cases Unit was £7.8 million (2013/ 2014). The Older Live Cases Unit budget spend to
    date for 2014/ 2015 is £1.87 million. Since setting up the Case Resolution Directorate,
    operational running costs have decreased year on year.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many contract or temporary employees are employed in the Older Live Cases Unit; and what proportion of the overall staff count are contract or temporary employees.

    Karen Bradley

    There were 208 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) temporary agency workers employed on
    OLCU casework at the end of Q1 2014, this was equal to 62.7% of the overall
    staff at the time. FTE means that part time employees are counted by the
    proportion of full time hours they work, so that staff working half the time of
    an equivalent full time colleague would count as 0.5 FTE.

  • Jim Dowd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim Dowd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Dowd on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made towards ending the testing of household products and ingredients on animals; and if she will make a statement.

    Norman Baker

    We have made a commitment to ban the testing of household products on animals.

    Although superficially straightforward, the details have not been easy to
    resolve. Any solution has to be legally viable since we cannot ban testing
    which may be required under UK or EU law.

    The key issue is around ingredients. I am looking to develop a solution that
    is workable and sensible, but does not have a chain of unforeseen circumstances.

    We are looking to publish progress on the commitment later in the year.