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  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will amend the terms of reference of the Pitchford inquiry into undercover policing to include operations by UK undercover officers that took place outside of the UK; and if she will make a statement.

    Mike Penning

    The terms of reference for the Statutory Inquiry into Undercover Policing, which were published on 16 July 2015, require the Inquiry to “inquire into and report on undercover police operations conducted by English and Welsh police forces in England and Wales since 1968”. There are no plans to amend the terms of reference.

  • Mark Prisk – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Mark Prisk – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Prisk on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the additional cost of policing the Ecuadorian Embassy due to the presence of Mr Julian Assange there in each of the last three years.

    Mike Penning

    This is a matter for the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service.

  • Fiona Mactaggart – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Fiona Mactaggart – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Mactaggart on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Prime Minister’s press release, PM’s Extremism Taskforce: tackling extremism in universities and colleges top of the agenda, dated 17 September 2015, what evidence was used to identify the six hate preachers named in that press release; and if she will publish the evidence which demonstrates that Dr Salman Butt had expressed views at a university contrary to British values.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Office has information on 70 events held on university campuses in 2014 involving speakers who are considered by the Home Office to have previously expressed views contrary to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. Dr Salman Butt is the chief editor of Islam21c, a publication that hosts material contrary to British values, and has himself expressed views of concern in this publication and on social media, appearing to compare homosexuality to paedophilia as a sin and supporting FGM. He has spoken alongside CAGE and used social media to support CAGE’s position on Mohammed Emwazi (‘Jihadi John’), which has been to try to justify his resort to violence.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrian refugees arrived in the UK through the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme in September 2015.

    Richard Harrington

    Since the first arrivals in March 2014 to the end of June 2015, 216 people were relocated to the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement scheme.

    Our statistics will be published quarterly and we will not be giving a running commentary on numbers. Our prime concern is the safety and protection of these very vulnerable people as they arrive in this country. We believe that the best way to protect their privacy and ensure their recovery and integration is to limit the amount of information about them that we make publicly available.

    The Prime Minister has said that we want to see 1,000 Syrian refugees brought to the UK by Christmas. The Government is working closely with local authorities, international delivery partners and the voluntary sector, putting in place the plans and structures to deliver this and ensuring the system is scaled up in a way that protects the interests of all concerned.

  • Chris Stephens – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Chris Stephens – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Stephens on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have had with representatives of (i) the Taxpayers’ Alliance, (ii) the Confederation of British Industry, (iii) the Institute of Economic Affairs, (iv) the Adam Smith Institute, (v) the Freedom Association, (vi) the Politics and Economics Research Trust and (vii) the Midlands Industrial Council in the last 12 months.

    Karen Bradley

    Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office

  • Nigel Huddleston – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Nigel Huddleston – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Huddleston on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, by what measures landlords may be held responsible for the anti-social behaviour of their tenants in houses of multiple occupation.

    Brandon Lewis

    Where a house in multiple occupation requires a licence, the local authority can attach a condition to the licence which specifies how the licence holder deals with the behaviour of occupiers. Breach of a licence condition is an offence subject to a fine of up to £5,000.

    The local authority can also, subject to approval from a First Tier Property Tribunal, make Special Interim Management Orders to take over the management of individual private rented properties which give rise to significant problems of anti-social behaviour if the landlord does not take action to deal with the problem.

    The Government is commited to raising standards in houses in multiple occupation more generally, so they are a safe place to live in and do not blight the neighbourhoods in which they are found. We will shortly engage with the sector on options for extending the scope of mandatory licensing of houses in multiple occupation.

  • Vicky Foxcroft – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Vicky Foxcroft – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Vicky Foxcroft on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times visa applications have been refused because of technicalities in each of the last four years; and how many such cases have been subject to a complaint or appeal.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office is unable to provide the information requested, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Vicky Foxcroft – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Vicky Foxcroft – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Vicky Foxcroft on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the oral statement by the Prime Minister on 7 September 2015, Official Report, column 23, how many Syrian refugee families have been granted asylum in the UK to date.

    James Brokenshire

    437 Syrian refugee families have been granted asylum since 2006. This figure is based on main asylum claimants who claimed asylum from 1 October 2006 to August 2015, with 1 or more dependant linked to their asylum claim that was under the age of 18. This does not include individuals from the current resettlement programme, which will take 20,000 by the end of this Parliament.

  • Patrick Grady – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Patrick Grady – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Patrick Grady on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the report of (a) the United Nations Office Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea, published in June 2015 and (b) the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information Eritrea, published in May 2015, was taken into account in drafting her Department’s country information and guidance on Eritrea.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office considered these reports and they are reflected in the updated country information and guidance on Eritrea. This was published on 9 September and is available online. This includes reference to the IAGCI report, material taken from the UN Commission on Inquiry report on Eritrea and other relevant country information.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alison Thewliss – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2015-10-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visa applicants in (a) Scotland, (b) Glasgow and (c) Glasgow Central constituency have been liable for the Immigration Health Surcharge since that charge’s introduction.

    James Brokenshire

    Since its introduction in April, the Immigration Health Surcharge has collected more than £100 million in income for the NHS. The Home Office does not hold the necessary management information to determine how many visa applicants have been liable to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge by geographical location in the UK.