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  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the correction of 9 February 2016 to Question 13206, what the cause was of the error in information on former unaccompanied minors removed between 2007 and 31 December 2015; and what steps she is taking to ensure that correct information is collected and published in future.

    James Brokenshire

    The mistake given in the original response to Question 13206 resulted from two errors in the query for extracting information from the relevant database. One error involved the use of an incorrect definition which excluded former unaccompanied asylum seeking children who now had linked dependants. The other was an error in the computer code which extracted the data. In this instance, the code for the query was mistyped and so the data returned was incorrect. These errors have now been resolved and a correction issued. Such mistakes are rare and when they occur they are taken very seriously.

    It is regrettable that human error caused the original response to this Parliamentary Question to be incorrect and improvements have been put in place. The appropriate definition has been reviewed and confirmed. This definition, and the correct approach on careful coding, have been made clear to the officials involved. We are reviewing other Parliamentary Answers about unaccompanied asylum seeking children to see if these were affected by similar issues. While these respond to different specific questions, we wish to review the methodology used thoroughly. We are also reviewing whether additional processes are needed for Parliamentary Questions that require complex data queries.

  • Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what reports she has received from the Metropolitan Police in the Royal Borough of Greenwich of delays in processing Disclosure and Barring Service applications.

    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) which is having difficulty in meeting its targets. An MPS Gold Group is overseeing the recovery plan in place at the MPS. London Boroughs do not operate their own disclosure units.

    The number of applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service from people living in Greenwich and Woolwich constituency that have taken more than 60 days to process in each of the last 12 months is listed in the table below.

    Month

    Total Disclosures Issued to Applicants from the Constituency of Greenwich and Woolwich

    Disclosures that took longer than 60 days

    February 2015 – January 2016

    11,446

    1,688
  • Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service from people living in Greenwich and Woolwich constituency have taken more than 60 days to process in the last 12 months.

    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) which is having difficulty in meeting its targets. An MPS Gold Group is overseeing the recovery plan in place at the MPS. London Boroughs do not operate their own disclosure units.

    The number of applications to the Disclosure and Barring Service from people living in Greenwich and Woolwich constituency that have taken more than 60 days to process in each of the last 12 months is listed in the table below.

    Month

    Total Disclosures Issued to Applicants from the Constituency of Greenwich and Woolwich

    Disclosures that took longer than 60 days

    February 2015 – January 2016

    11,446

    1,688
  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the contribution of the Minister for Immigration in the public bill committee stage of the Immigration Bill on 1 December 2015, Official Report, column 206, what the terms of reference are of the detailed analysis of the purposes of immigration detention being conducted by her Department.

    Karen Bradley

    Alongside the response to the recommendations of the Shaw review, set out in a Written Ministerial Statement on 14 January 2016, Home Office Ministers are giving further consideration to the wider requirements of the immigration detention estate.

    The analysis referred to is regarded as internal policy advice, and the Home Office does not intend to release this piece of work.

  • Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Neil Coyle – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Neil Coyle on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the Migration Advisory Committee did not provide its report by the end of January 2016.

    James Brokenshire

    The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published its Tier 2 report on 19 January. We asked the MAC to provide its report on whether nurses should remain on the Shortage Occupation List in February, to allow time for a full review of the evidence.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 24 of the Joint Ministerial Declaration on UK/French co-operation on managing migratory flows in Calais, published in August 2015, what progress has been made on the commitment to take stock of the operational effectiveness of the Dublin III Regulations.

    Karen Bradley

    The UK government supports the Dublin III principles and welcomes the swift processing of asylum claims made in Calais. For migrants to be processed under Dublin III they must first claim asylum in France. The UK government will consider any request made by the French asylum authorities under the Dublin Regulation to take responsibility for an asylum applicant in France because they have close family in the UK.

    To ensure that the provisions of the Dublin Regulation are used efficiently and effectively in both countries, a joint contact group has been established in line with the commitment in the Joint Declaration. The UK has held regular discussions with French Interior Ministry colleagues, including visits to Calais and Dunkirk to examine the processes and the information made available to migrants.

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to update guidance on the implementation of the Dublin III Regulations to ensure that unaccompanied children in Calais and Dunkirk can be united swiftly with their family in the UK.

    Karen Bradley

    The UK government supports the Dublin III principles and welcomes the swift processing of asylum claims made in Calais. For migrants to be processed under Dublin III they must first claim asylum in France. The UK government will consider any request made by the French asylum authorities under the Dublin Regulation to take responsibility for an asylum applicant in France because they have close family in the UK.

    To ensure that the provisions of the Dublin Regulation are used efficiently and effectively in both countries, a joint contact group has been established in line with the commitment in the Joint Declaration. The UK has held regular discussions with French Interior Ministry colleagues, including visits to Calais and Dunkirk to examine the processes and the information made available to migrants.

  • Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many freedom of information requests were (a) granted and (b) refused by her Department in each of the last five years.

    Karen Bradley

    The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistical reports on the handling of requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for central government. These reports include statistics on the numbers of requests granted in full and those where information was partially or fully withheld. These reports can be accessed on the following webpage: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been transferred from the UK to other EU countries under the Dublin III Regulation (a) in total and (b) for the purposes of family reunification in the last 12 months.

    Karen Bradley

    An answer is still being prepared. We are currently extracting the data and need to ensure it is correctly quality checked to give the Hon. Member an accurate response and I will write to the honourable Member when it is finished.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-02-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many requests for the transfer of an asylum application from other EU countries the UK has (a) received and (b) accepted in the last 12 months.

    Karen Bradley

    An answer is still being prepared. We are currently extracting the data and need to ensure it is correctly quality checked to give the Hon. Member an accurate response and I will write to the honourable Member when it is finished.