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  • Bernard Jenkin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Bernard Jenkin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bernard Jenkin on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff in her Department are working on matters related to (a) European policy, (b) the future of Europe, (c) reform of the EU, (d) the renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with the EU, (e) the EU referendum and (f) the consequences of the EU referendum; how many full-time equivalent staff are working on such matters; what the (i) staff and (ii) other cost of such work is; what proportion of that work is undertaken by such staff on (A) communications, (B) strategy and (C) policy; whether her Department has established any specific unit or units to deal with those matters; to whom such (1) staff and (2) units report; whether her Department has issued guidelines to staff on those matters; and if she will make a statement.

    James Brokenshire

    The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of our EU membership that cause so much frustration in Britain – so we get a better deal for Britain and secure our future. Departments are appropriately resourced to support the Government’s priorities in Europe, including the renegotiation and referendum.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) requests were made for and (b) individuals passed Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) adult first checks in each year since 2012; what the average time taken was for that check to be carried out; and how many of those passed subsequently failed their DBS check, and were therefore not issued with a DBS certificate.

    Karen Bradley

    The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Adult First is a service provided by the Disclosure and Barring Service that can be used in cases where, exceptionally, and in accordance with the terms of Department of Health guidance, a person is permitted to start work with adults before a DBS Certificate has been obtained.

    An individual neither passes nor fails an Adult First check and a certificate is not withheld if a person is on the Adults barred list. If a person is on the list, that fact will be disclosed on the completed DBS certificate.

    There are two outcomes to an Adult First check and the Registered Body is either advised that no match exists for this person on the current Adults barred list, or they must wait for the full disclosure as a match against the Adults barred list cannot be ruled out at this stage. Further investigation is then carried out through the normal disclosure checking process and if a match against the Adults barred list is confirmed, it will be disclosed on the certificate.

    The table below shows the number of requests that were made for DBS Adult First checks, the average time taken to complete Adult First checks and the number of times the Registered Body received a ‘wait for the full disclosure’ or ‘no match found’ response between December 2012 and November 2015.

    Period

    Number of Adult First Requests

    Average Number of Days to Conduct Adult First Check

    Number of “No Match Found” responses

    Number of “wait for full Disclosure” responses

    Dec-12 to Mar-13

    50,175

    1.07

    39,200

    10,975

    Apr-13 to Mar-14

    166,287

    1.08

    130,333

    35,954

    Apr-14 to Mar-15

    173,503

    1.19

    135,792

    37,711

    Apr-15 to Nov-15

    116,602

    1.06

    91,782

    24,820
  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for how many asylum applications did it take UK Visas and Immigration longer than 12 months to make an initial decision; how many such applicants submitted a request to be allowed to work in the UK; how many of those requests to work were rejected; and how long, on average, did it take for those accepted to be given documents confirming their right to work in each year since 2009-10.

    James Brokenshire

    The table below shows, for each year from 2009-10, the time taken to make an initial decision, including those made within 12 months of claiming asylum.

    In the year ending 31 March 2015, UKVI completed a sigmificant exercise in clearing all straightforward asylum cases with a claim date preceding 1 April 2014.

    Financial Year

    Total Number of Decisions

    No of Cases with a decision Over a Year

    No of Cases with a decision Under a Year

    2009/10

    24,510

    3,048

    21,462

    2010/11

    19,818

    4,010

    15,808

    2011/12

    16,970

    1,479

    15,491

    2012/13

    17,561

    1,208

    16,353

    2013/14

    15,141

    2,305

    12,836

    2014/15

    25,992

    8,281

    17,711

    2015/16 (Up to the 30 Sep 2015)

    13,073

    1,217

    11,856

    The Home Office holds reportable information on the number of asylum seekers who have not received a decision within twelve months. Permission to work requests are also recorded on the immigration casework database but this information is not readily reportable without interrogating thousands of individual cases. Therefore, the information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made on implementing the recommendations of her Department’s Review of the National Referral Mechanism for victims of human trafficking, published in November 2014; and if she will make a statement.

    Karen Bradley

    Ensuring that the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is identifying and supporting potential victims of modern slavery continues to be a top priority. The Government is running pilots in the West Yorkshire police force area and the South West region to test the recommendations made in the NRM review. These pilots are due to conclude in summer 2016, after which the Government will reflect on lessons learned and announce next steps.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many cases were referred to the National Referral Mechanism as potential victims of trafficking for domestic servitude in each year since 2009; and how many such cases had a (a) positive reasonable grounds decision and (b) positive conclusive grounds decision.

    Karen Bradley

    Statistics relating to the National Referral Mechanism are published quarterly by the National Crime Agency in their “Human Trafficking: National Referral Mechanism Statistics” report, which includes information on exploitation type and decision outcomes. These can be found here:

    http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics

    Data prior to April 2012 is held for internal use but has not been validated for publication.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Ian C. Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20252, how she intends to monitor incidence of convictions for offences of domestic violence.

    Karen Bradley

    The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) publishes an annual violence against women and girls report, which includes national level data on the number of convictions for domestic abuse. The latest data, published in June 2015, showed that the volume of convictions in 2014-15 reached 68,601 – a rise of 10,325 convictions since 2013-14 and the highest volume ever.

  • Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Kinnock – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Kinnock on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what risk assessment has been made of the proposed centre for destitute asylum seekers in Goytre.

    James Brokenshire

    The premises in Goytre is one of a number of sites throughout the UK that the Home Office, along with its providers, has initially identified as potentially suitable for providing temporary reception facilities for asylum seekers. Initial assessments undertaken by the provider suggest that Goytre could meet the appropriate requirements laid out in Schedule 2 of the COMPASS contract. If the provider elects to progress this option, further appropriate assessments will be completed prior to any commercial agreements and utilisation of the site.

  • Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Calum Kerr on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on the Save the Children proposal to relocate 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children who have arrived in Europe to the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    As the Prime Minister said to Parliament in December, we are looking again at the issue of bringing Syrian children to the UK. In any consideration we must ensure that our proposals are in the best interests of those children affected and do not inadvertently put children at additional risk.

    Our Syrian resettlement programme has already resettled vulnerable children as part of family groups, with over 1000 refugees resettled by Christmas.

  • Peter Bone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Peter Bone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Bone on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made on reducing net migration to the tens of thousands.

    James Brokenshire

    Uncontrolled mass immigration increases pressure on public services and can drive down wages. That is why our ambition remains to cut net migration to sustainable levels. We continue to work across government to reduce net migration outside of the EU and seek reform in Europe to reduce the pull factors behind EU migration. Building on the measures in the Immigration Act 2014, our new Immigration Bill will address illegal working, the availability of public services which help migrants remain here unlawfully and will extend our ‘deport first appeal later’ approach to ensure that even more illegal migrants are removed from the UK.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passports were processed by each Passport Office in the UK between 2010 and 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    I refer to the attached table which provides by calendar year the volume of passports issued by each passport office in the UK from 2010 to 2015.

    The number of passports issued by the Newport office dropped in 2012 and 2013 because it ceased to process postal applications during this time. Newport then restarted postal passport production in 2014.

    The number of passports issued by the Glasgow office dropped in 2011 because it also ceased to process postal applications during this time. However, Glasgow continued to utilise counter staff to process a small number of postal applications through the subsequent years.