Author: admin

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to assist unaccompanied child refugees in Europe.

    James Brokenshire

    Unaccompanied children in other EU countries should be able to access the support needed in those countries. The European countries in which they arrive have international obligations and a duty to provide adequate protection and support to refugees within their territory.

    We are working closely with UN agencies, NGOs and the Member States involved to ensure that protection is provided. We will provide further resources to the European Asylum Support Office to help in border “hotspots” in Greece and Italy to help identify and register children at risk on first arrival in the EU.

    The Government remains concerned about the needs of vulnerable children on the move in Europe and the Balkans, and the needs of those who become stranded along the route. The UK has therefore increased its aid to refugees and migrants, including children, in Europe and the Balkans to £46 million, divided among the most affected countries and including specific support of £2.75 million to UNICEF, which will benefit 27,000 children. In addition, the Department for International Development (DFID) is creating a new fund of up to £10 million to support the needs of vulnerable refugee and migrant children in Europe, the Refugee Children Fund for Europe.

    This will include targeted support to meet the specific needs of unaccompanied and separated children who face additional risks. The support will be delivered through a range of UN agencies and NGOs. Unaccompanied children that have a close family link to the UK and claim asylum in another EU country may be entitled to be transferred to the UK under the family unity provisions of the Dublin Regulation. We want to ensure we reunite children with any close family in the UK as quickly and as safely as possible, and we work closely with EU partners on this issue.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of reports by the Chief of Staff of Europol that 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees may have disappeared in Europe in 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    Unaccompanied children in other EU countries should be able to access the support needed in those countries. The European countries in which they arrive have international obligations and a duty to provide adequate protection and support to refugees within their territory.

    We are working closely with UN agencies, NGOs and the Member States involved to ensure that protection is provided. We will provide further resources to the European Asylum Support Office to help in border “hotspots” in Greece and Italy to help identify and register children at risk on first arrival in the EU.

    The Government remains concerned about the needs of vulnerable children on the move in Europe and the Balkans, and the needs of those who become stranded along the route. The UK has therefore increased its aid to refugees and migrants, including children, in Europe and the Balkans to £46 million, divided among the most affected countries and including specific support of £2.75 million to UNICEF, which will benefit 27,000 children. In addition, the Department for International Development (DFID) is creating a new fund of up to £10 million to support the needs of vulnerable refugee and migrant children in Europe, the Refugee Children Fund for Europe.

    This will include targeted support to meet the specific needs of unaccompanied and separated children who face additional risks. The support will be delivered through a range of UN agencies and NGOs. Unaccompanied children that have a close family link to the UK and claim asylum in another EU country may be entitled to be transferred to the UK under the family unity provisions of the Dublin Regulation. We want to ensure we reunite children with any close family in the UK as quickly and as safely as possible, and we work closely with EU partners on this issue.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reunite lone refugee children in mainland Europe with family members in the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    Unaccompanied children in other EU countries should be able to access the support needed in those countries. The European countries in which they arrive have international obligations and a duty to provide adequate protection and support to refugees within their territory.

    We are working closely with UN agencies, NGOs and the Member States involved to ensure that protection is provided. We will provide further resources to the European Asylum Support Office to help in border “hotspots” in Greece and Italy to help identify and register children at risk on first arrival in the EU.

    The Government remains concerned about the needs of vulnerable children on the move in Europe and the Balkans, and the needs of those who become stranded along the route. The UK has therefore increased its aid to refugees and migrants, including children, in Europe and the Balkans to £46 million, divided among the most affected countries and including specific support of £2.75 million to UNICEF, which will benefit 27,000 children. In addition, the Department for International Development (DFID) is creating a new fund of up to £10 million to support the needs of vulnerable refugee and migrant children in Europe, the Refugee Children Fund for Europe.

    This will include targeted support to meet the specific needs of unaccompanied and separated children who face additional risks. The support will be delivered through a range of UN agencies and NGOs. Unaccompanied children that have a close family link to the UK and claim asylum in another EU country may be entitled to be transferred to the UK under the family unity provisions of the Dublin Regulation. We want to ensure we reunite children with any close family in the UK as quickly and as safely as possible, and we work closely with EU partners on this issue.

  • David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    David T. C. Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David T. C. Davies on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate his Department has made of the number of men in the UK who are in polygamous marriages.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Norman Lamb – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Norman Lamb on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what reports she has received from (a) the Metropolitan Police and (b) other police forces of delays in processing Disclosure and Barring Service applications; and if she will make a statement.

    Karen Bradley

    The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) provides a formal monthly performance report to the Home Office and Home Office Ministers. This includes updates on the performance of police forces in meeting the Service Level Agreement (SLA) standards for the time taken to complete local disclosure checks.

    The DBS monitors the performance of all police disclosure units and works closely with any force, including the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), not meeting its targets. An MPS Gold Group is overseeing the recovery plan in place at the MPS and Home Office officials maintain a close oversight of the progress being made by assessing weekly reports and through regular attendance at the Group.

    It is a priority of the MPS, DBS and the Home Office to see improvements as quickly as possible and I will continue to monitor the situation closely.

  • Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim McMahon on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2015 to Question 1705, if she will make it her policy to collate information centrally on the number of police stations and police custody cells that closed.

    Mike Penning

    The Government has no plans to place an unnecessary bureaucratic burden on locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) or Chief Constables by requiring this information to be reported centrally. Decisions about the most effective use of available resources, including the number and operating hours of police stations and the number of custody cells, are a matter for the Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable locally (the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the Commissioner in the case of the Metropolitan Police and the Corporation and the Commissioner in the case of the City of London Police), tailored to the needs of the local community.

  • Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ann Clwyd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ann Clwyd on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the implications are for her Department’s policies of the legal submission given to her on 15 December 2015 by the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign on the confrontation between police and miners at Orgreave in June 1984.

    Mike Penning

    On 21 July 2015 the Home Secretary met a group of MPs, a Welsh Assembly Member, Michael Mansfield QC and members of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), led by Louise Haigh MP, to discuss their calls for a public inquiry to be established following the publication of the IPCC scoping review into the policing of events at Orgreave in 1984.

    Following this meeting, on 15 December 2015 the Home Secretary received a submission from the OTJC containing their arguments for establishing a public inquiry into the events at Orgreave. That 85 page submission raises a range of extensive issues which the Home Secretary is currently considering fully and in detail before responding. She will set out the Government’s position in due course.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 24446, what reports her Department has received from the International Committee of the Red Cross on the spending by that body of humanitarian relief funds from her Department for humanitarian relief in Libya.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    DFID’s £2 million funding to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Libya was given in response to their 2015 Budget Extension Appeal. The ICRC will submit to DFID, in accordance with agreed ICRC standard reporting timelines, an Annual Report, Financial Report and Annual Audited Accounts by June 2016.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many under-18s died while in youth custody between 2010 and 2015; and what the causes of those deaths were.

    Andrew Selous

    The number and causes of deaths of prisoners aged under 18 and held in the custody of the National Offender Management Service is published on a quarterly basis in the Safety in Custody Statistics Bulletin annual deaths tables (see table 1.3 at the following link) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/495427/safety-in-custody-deaths-dec-2015.xls. The most recent publication was published on 28 January 2016 and contains information on deaths up to 31 December 2015.

    “

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to send prisoners returned to jail having broken their licence conditions to a different prison than the one from which they were released.

    Andrew Selous

    Prisoners recalled to custody having breached the conditions of their licence will be arrested by the police and then taken to the nearest local prison for the area in which they were arrested. Prisoners who, prior to release had been held in the closed training estate or in an open prison, will not therefore be returned to the same prison from which their release took place. Those prisoners who had been held in a local prison prior to release on licence, may be returned to the same establishment if that is the nearest local prison for the area in which they were arrested.

    Once returned to a local prison, prisoners will be re-assessed and a decision made on which prison is best suited to their needs, taking into account all factors in the case including the risks they present and other security issues. Prisoners recalled for short periods may remain in the local prison until release unless there are specific reasons, including security reasons, why they should be transferred elsewhere.