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  • Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the costs and difficulties faced by Chinese visitors and tourists wishing to enter the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    The UK welcomes Chinese visitors and tourists, and our visa service is one of the most flexible and comprehensive on offer in China. We have 12 visa application centres in China, more than any other country, and provide a range of services and fast-tracking options to improve customer choice and experience. We continue to enhance this offer and in recent months have introduced the UK-Belgian Visitor Service, which has streamlined the UK and Schengen visa application processes, and expanded our on demand mobile visa service, to make it easier for Chinese nationals to apply. On 20 October the Prime Minister announced further improvements for Chinese visitors, including piloting the extension of standard visitor visas from six months to two years multiple entry, and plans to introduce a new ten year multi-entry visit visa at the same price. Our mobile visa on demand service will also be further extended to an additional 50 cities. Demand continues to grow, and in the year ending June 2015, the UK issued 377,427 visit visas to Chinese nationals – a 19% increase on the previous year. The UK processes 99% of applications in China within the 15 working service standard, with an average processing time of less than seven days, and 95% of Chinese applicants are successful.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andy Slaughter – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to withdraw the courses and services provided by the College of Policing to the government of Saudi Arabia.

    Mike Penning

    This is an agreement between the College of Policing and Saudi Arabia, and therefore any decision about the contract would be a matter for the College which is an independent organisation. The College currently has no plans to withdraw from the contract.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mark Hendrick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent staff her Department allocated to responding to hon. Members’ enquiries on their constituents’ immigration issues on 1 September (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014 and (d) 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    It is not possible to provide the Hon. Member with all the information requested as it is not readily available or held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

    UKVI requires many of its staff, as part of their roles, to contribute to dealing with immigration enquiries from Members. This can include providing contributions to Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial briefing or for a Select Committee hearing.

    Since 1 September 2015, UKVI has had dedicated MP Account Management teams whose job is to handle MP enquiries relating to their constituents. A total of 70 full-time equivalent staff are currently employed in these teams. Other members of staff will also contribute to the preparation of responses.

    Published statistics confirm that UKVI’s service to Members has continually exceeded its service standard since Q4 2014. The Hon. Member can access this information at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-august-2015.

  • Paul Blomfield – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Paul Blomfield – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 12 October 2015 from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Refugees, Official Report, column 13, on Refugee crisis, if she will place in the Library a copy of the letter of 1 October to chief executives of local authorities.

    Richard Harrington

    On 2 October local authorities received a letter to confirm that the first 12 months of a refugee’s resettlement costs are fully funded by central government using the overseas aid budget. To ensure that local authorities can plan ahead and continue to respond to the overwhelmingly generous response of the British people, the Government will also provide additional funding to assist with costs incurred in future years. These arrangements will be applied to all cases since the 20,000 expansion was announced. A copy of that letter will not be placed in the Library. Guidance for local authorities and partners on the Syrian vulnerable person resettlement programme (VPR) is available on our website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/syrian-vulnerable-person-resettlement-programme-fact-sheet

  • Nigel Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nigel Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Disclosure and Barring Service checks were carried out in (a) the UK, (b) Lancashire and (c) Ribble Valley constituency in the last 12 months.

    Karen Bradley

    Between 1 October 2014 and 30 September 2015, the Disclosure and Barring Service issued 4,209,742 disclosures. Of these, 102,252 were received from individuals living in Lancashire. The DBS does not hold information to show the number of certificates by constituency.

  • Nigel Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nigel Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans the Disclosure and Barring Service has to protect vulnerable groups from exposure to unchecked employees and unregistered employers.

    Karen Bradley

    The responsibility for protecting vulnerable groups in the workplace lies with employers. The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) provides access to criminal records and other relevant information held by the police to assist employers in considering suitability to work with children or vulnerable adults. It also maintains lists of those who are barred from work with either or both those groups.

  • Nigel Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nigel Evans – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Evans on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to ensure that delays in Disclosure and Barring Service checks by (a) the Metropolitan Police and (b) other constabularies are minimised.

    Karen Bradley

    The DBS is reliant on the police completing their checks in a timely manner. To support this, service level agreements are in place between the DBS and each police force. These include a requirement for forces to complete 100% of local checks within 60 days.

    There are a small number of forces, including the Metropolitan Police Service, experiencing difficulties in dealing with the volume of applications that have been referred to them. If police force performance falls below the standard agreed with the DBS, the DBS will work with the force concerned including, where appropriate, implementing a recovery plan.

    The DBS is working closely with the MPS to address its performance issues. An MPS Gold Group is overseeing the recovery plan and exploring all opportunities to process cases quickly. Measures include increasing recruitment, introducing an evening team to improve resilience, and prioritising and escalating cases where possible. All police disclosure units, including that of the MPS, are funded by the DBS which agrees a budget for each police force annually based on the expected numbers of local checks.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Nicholas Soames – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will merge the Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex police forces.

    Mike Penning

    Any request from police forces to merge would be considered where it is supported by a robust business case and has local consent. It is the role of directly elected local Police and Crime Commissioners to propose changes to local policing, not central government. It is not necessary for police forces to merge in order to become more efficient. Existing legislation places a strong duty on Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to collaborate in the interests of efficiency and effectiveness. Many are demonstrating that they can collaborate without sacrificing local accountability and identity. For example, Sussex and Surrey are already working together on collaborations that include a joint IT solution, procurement, major crime, forensics, firearms and fleet.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to reduce the time taken to process asylum applications.

    James Brokenshire

    We have an ongoing recruitment campaign to ensure we maintain our levels of decision makers and have also began work to further improve on the efficiency of our interview and decision-making process across case work teams. We have significantly improved our suite of guidance on considering asylum claims, including key instructions on asylum interviews and assessing credibility. We have also streamlined processes by reducing the volume of paperwork required and cutting duplication in the asylum process, including improvements to the way in which decisions are explained to applicants in correspondence to make it easier to understand. These changes are designed to support caseworkers to improve decision quality and efficiency to ensure we grant protection where it is needed whilst refusing unfounded claims more quickly, whilst also ensuring a more customer focused approach. We aim to decide straightforward asylum claims within six months.

  • Lady Hermon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lady Hermon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lady Hermon on 2015-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what occasions Ministers or officials of her Department discussed the Immigration Bill with (a) the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and (b) the Justice Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive; and if she will make a statement.

    James Brokenshire

    Discussion with interested parties in Northern Ireland on the content of the Immigration Bill has been ongoing since the summer, and has included correspondence at Ministerial level and meetings and workshops at official level with relevant departments in the Northern Ireland Executive. Discussions are also ongoing with the officials of the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Justice Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive.