Blog

  • Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jack Dromey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the (a) extra cost to police forces and (b) extra staff hours in police forces resulting from the change in the level of reported cases of contact child sex offences in the last two years.

    Mike Penning

    Resourcing is an operational matter for individual Chief Constables. We have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement to empower police forces to maximise specialist skills and expertise to prevent offending and resolve cases. This means that police forces must have in place the capabilities they need to protect children from sexual abuse.

    In 2015/16 the Government provided an additional £10 million to the National Crime Agency to create specialist teams to tackle online child sexual exploitation. We have also made available £1.7 million to fund Operation Hydrant, which coordinates the handling of multiple non-recent child sexual abuse investigations specifically concerning institutions or persons of public prominence, and up to £1.5 million to support regional coordinators and analysts to oversee the implementation of the National Policing Plan for tackling child sexual exploitation.

  • Keir Starmer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Keir Starmer – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keir Starmer on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) single adult males and (b) single adult females were in reciept of support under the provisions of section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 in December 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home office publishes statistics on those supported under section 4 at the end of each quarter in the quarterly Immigration Statistics release.

    Of the 3,821 main applicants and dependants that were supported under section 4 as at the end of December 2015, 1,948 were single adults. Where the gender of the main applicant is recorded, 1,544 of these were males and 335 were females.

    The data relating to single adults is a subset of figures published in Table as_18_q, in volume 4 of the latest Immigration Statistics release, available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015

  • Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Philip Davies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the number of people who have had their application for asylum refused but cannot legally be returned to their country of origin.

    James Brokenshire

    The government expects those who have been refused asylum and who have no lawful basis to remain in the UK to leave at the earliest opportunity. If there is a genuine obstacle that prevents a failed asylum seeker’s departure from the UK and they are destitute, they can apply for support under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. As of 31 December 2015, a total of 3,821 failed asylum seekers and their dependants were supported under section 4.

  • Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking child refugees of each (a) gender and (b) age group who are currently in EU member states.

    James Brokenshire

    The UK Government does not hold information on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking child refugees in EU Member States by (a) gender and (b) age group.

    This is collected by each Member State and compiled by Eurostat. It is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database

    The UK Government is currently consulting with France, Italy and Greece to establish how best we can implement the recent Lord Dubs’ amendment to the Immigration Bill. This will include an assessment of numbers and needs of unaccompanied children in these Member States.

  • Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2016 to Question 35127, what the average cost of removing to India a person who had been refused leave to remain by (a) sea and (b) air was in the last year for which figures are available.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office has published information on the average cost of removal but this is not broken down by mode of transport, and to do so would incur disproportionate cost. Further information can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/costs-involved-in-detaining-and-removing-illegal-migrants.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to place unaccompanied refugee children from European countries with foster families or in local authority care homes.

    James Brokenshire

    As announced on 4 May we will be consulting closely with local authorities to find suitable places within the UK for these children.

    Local authorities will be required to provide the right support, care and accommodation to meet the child’s specific needs. Statutory agencies at a local level are best placed to understand and meet the needs of all children and will continue to make decisions about the right accommodation and support services for those who are looked after.

    Unaccompanied children will be eligible for foster care if it is considered that that this placement type will provide appropriate support and best meet their individual needs.

    The UK has well-established and effective safeguarding procedures to ensure the safety of children who come to the UK.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to encourage other countries to accept unaccompanied refugee children in Europe.

    James Brokenshire

    The government is at the forefront of assisting and protecting vulnerable children, wherever they are. Children in Europe are mostly already able to access support from countries that have similar legal obligations to our own.

    The UK has been playing its full part in supporting European neighbours to provide support to those who have arrived. We have provided nearly £46 million of funding to the Europe wide response to help the most vulnerable, including children and infants.

    In addition the £10 million the Department for International Development fund announced on 28 January will support UNHCR, Save the Children and International Rescue Committee to work with host authorities to care and assist unaccompanied or separated children.

    This is in addition to resettling those from conflict regions through our Syrian Resettlement Programme and Children at Risk Resettlement Scheme. The UK is playing a leading role in the resettlement of the most vulnerable and supports other EU Member States in establishing and developing their resettlement schemes, through bilateral and multinational discussions.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 26065, on mental illness: employment, whether the guidance for businesses on addressing mental health issues has been published.

    Alistair Burt

    Public Health England and Business in the Community (BITC) have produced a Mental Health Workplace digital toolkit for employers to address mental health issues at work. The toolkit builds on the existing best practice and considers the transferable learning between business sectors and businesses of different sizes. The toolkit will be published on BITC’s website on 16 May 2016 to coincide with the start of 2016 Mental Health Awareness Week.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is a legal requirement that urgent mental health referrals for admission are fully funded.

    Alistair Burt

    The legal requirement lies with clinical commissioning groups to work with local partners to assess the mental health needs of the community they serve, and to ensure services are commissioned and adequately funded to meet the identified needs. This includes provision of services to respond to people in mental health crisis or who need urgent inpatient mental health care. No one in need of urgent mental health care should be turned away from services while funding responsibilities are decided.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-05-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will require NHS England to set out commissioning responsibilities for mental healthcare.

    Alistair Burt

    NHS England has a five-year strategy – the Mental Health “Five Year Forward View” to improve mental health outcomes across the National Health Service, for people of all ages. The Forward View explains how national bodies will work together between now and 2021 to help people have good mental health and make sure they can access evidence-based treatment rapidly when they need it.

    In relation to commissioning, NHS England has direct commissioning responsibility for a number of specialised mental health services – as set out in regulations. These services include: adult secure in-patient services; in-patient services for children and adolescents; in-patient perinatal services; gender identity services; specialist in-patient services for people who have a mental health illness and are deaf; in- patient services for patients who have eating disorders and some specialist personality disorder in-patient services.

    The Mental Health Taskforce report – published in February, recommended that NHS England should ensure that by April 2017 population-based budgets are in place, which give clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) or other local partners the opportunity to collaboratively commission the majority of specialised services across the life course.

    CCGs are responsible for commissioning all other mental health services for both adults and children; working with partners such as local authorities, where appropriate.