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  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Compass asylum accommodation contract with Clearsprings Ready Home Limited for the region of London and South East England, how many faults were reported or identified from Compass inspections for each contractual pay period in 2014-15 and 2015-16; and how many such faults were not resolved within the agreed contractual timescales.

    James Brokenshire

    Providers are contractually required to provide safe, habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped accommodation to comply with the Housing Act 2004 and the Decent Homes Standard. Providers are monitored closely to ensure accommodation meets these standards and the contracts include measures to ensure any issues are quickly addressed. These performance standards are defined in the contract and are managed using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including those which measure whether an individual property is compliant with contractual obligations following an inspection and also the number of service users effected if a fault is not repaired within the contract timescales.

    The Home Office does not centrally record the number of individual faults reported or identified during accommodation inspections, or the number of individual faults not resolved within the agreed timescales. The requested information could therefore only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Compass asylum accommodation contract with Serco for the region of Scotland and Northern Ireland, how many faults were reported or identified from Compass inspections for each contractual pay period in the years 2014-15 and 2015-16; and how many such were not resolved within the agreed contractual timescales.

    James Brokenshire

    Providers are contractually required to provide safe, habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped accommodation to comply with the Housing Act 2004 and the Decent Homes Standard. Providers are monitored closely to ensure accommodation meets these standards and the contracts include measures to ensure any issues are quickly addressed. These performance standards are defined in the contract and are managed using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including those which measure whether an individual property is compliant with contractual obligations following an inspection and also the number of service users effected if a fault is not repaired within the contract timescales.

    The Home Office does not centrally record the number of individual faults reported or identified during accommodation inspections, or the number of individual faults not resolved within the agreed timescales. The requested information could therefore only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Compass asylum accommodation contract with Serco for the region of North West England, how many faults were reported or identified from Compass inspections for each contractual pay period in 2014-15 and 2015-16; and how many such faults were not resolved within the agreed contractual timescales.

    James Brokenshire

    Providers are contractually required to provide safe, habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped accommodation to comply with the Housing Act 2004 and the Decent Homes Standard. Providers are monitored closely to ensure accommodation meets these standards and the contracts include measures to ensure any issues are quickly addressed. These performance standards are defined in the contract and are managed using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including those which measure whether an individual property is compliant with contractual obligations following an inspection and also the number of service users effected if a fault is not repaired within the contract timescales.

    The Home Office does not centrally record the number of individual faults reported or identified during accommodation inspections, or the number of individual faults not resolved within the agreed timescales. The requested information could therefore only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Andrew Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Smith on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he plans for the proposed £1,000 immigration skills charge to apply to NHS nurses.

    Nick Boles

    The Immigration Skills Charge will be paid by UK employers recruiting skilled migrant labour from outside the European Economic Area. This includes employers of nurses. The charge will apply from April 2017. There will be a flat rate of £1,000 per Tier 2 migrant sponsored per year. Some public sector employers could benefit from the small and charitable sponsors reduced rate of £364 per Tier 2 migrant sponsored per year.

    As the independent Migration Advisory Committee stated in their January 2016 report on Tier 2, public sector organisations are employers like any other and should be incentivised to consider the UK labour market first, before recruiting outside Europe.

  • Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people of each nationality are awaiting deportation.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office does not disclose country specific information regarding deportation of foreign national offenders in any public material, including Freedom of Information Requests, as its disclosure could prejudice relations between the UK and foreign governments. Parliamentary Questions are approached in the same way.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether holders of Latvian non-citizen status are considered to be EEA nationals for the purposes of immigration policy.

    James Brokenshire

    Holders of Latvian non-citizen status are not considered to be European Economic Area (EEA) nationals for the purposes of immigration policy.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 15 March 2016 to Questions 30647 and 30649, what the evidential basis is for the statement that her Department’s policy enables thousands of people each year to be reunited with their families in the UK; and how many extended family members seeking family reunion have been granted asylum in exceptional circumstances by the Entry Clearance Officer in each of the last three years.

    James Brokenshire

    In the last three years, over 13,000 family reunion visas have been granted under the Immigration Rules. This information is available in the quarterly statistics published by the Home Office and available on Gov.UK here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015/list-of-tables#visas

    A further 65 visas have been granted outside the Rules due to exceptional circumstances.

    We have committed to making clearer in revised guidance the kinds of cases which may benefit from leave outside the Immigration Rules due to exceptional circumstances. The guidance will be updated by the end of April.

  • Wayne David – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Wayne David – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wayne David on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what insurance cover her Department and police forces make available for special constables who are injured on duty and require long-term compensation for loss of earnings.

    Mike Penning

    In order to ensure that special constables have legal protection, the Home Office provides legal assistance cover currently through Arc Legal Assistance. This is available to all special constables, free of charge, and includes personal injury cover including financial compensation for damages. It also includes cover for legal advice as well as representation at criminal proceedings.

    The Government recognise the importance of police welfare. In October 2014 we allocated £10 million to help support emergency services personnel and volunteers, focused on mental health, physical recuperation and bereavement support for those who need it.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to (a) shorten the immigration appeals process and (b) reduce the number of immigration appeals.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    Immigration appeals are determined by the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) which are administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS).

    HMCTS works with the Home Office and others to monitor and continuously improve appeal processes and timeliness.

    The Immigration Act 2014 simplified the appeals system, reducing the number of decisions that can be appealed. For the quarter October to December 2015, 18,368 appeals were received – a 29% reduction when compared with the same quarter in 2014.

  • Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many judicial reviews against her Department have (a) been initiated and (b) were successful since 2010.

    Karen Bradley

    No central records are kept of (i) the number of judicial reviews initiated against the department since 2010; (ii) the cost of defending such challenges; or (iii) the number of such challenges which have been successful. It would incur disproportionate cost to try to acquire this information.