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  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Rt. hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will take steps to secure an Autism Access Award from the National Autistic Society for the parliamentary estate.

    Tom Brake

    The House of Commons started work on this earlier in the year, as reported in the Head of Diversity and Inclusion’s quarterly update to the House of Commons Commission in January. The National Autistic Society has conducted its mystery shopping part of the accreditation. We are aiming to submit our evidence for the remainder of the assessment by June this year.

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what procedures and checks her Department has put in place to ensure that the new supplier of language analysis testing are fully qualified to conduct those tests.

    James Brokenshire

    Language analysis assists us in determining whether asylum seekers are of the nationality or national origin they claim. It is one of the tools used by asylum decision makers to help resolve fairly issues of doubtful nationality or national origin and to ensure that those claiming asylum in a false identity are detected quickly. It does not replace the requirement during substantive interview to fully probe and investigate doubted nationality/national origin cases.

    Professional linguists have communicated with the Home Office regarding their particular preference for the different models available for language analysis testing. As part of the contract competition undertaken in 2014, language analysis companies provided strong evidence of the quality of the services offered. There are dedicated formal arrangements in place to monitor our suppliers’ compliance with the contract terms.

  • 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 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32506, what proportion of asylum claims made by unaccompanied children of refugees who had already been granted asylum in the UK were granted in each of the last three years.

    James Brokenshire

    I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 15 March 2015 to his question 30647. The Home Office publishes quarterly figures on asylum claims from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in the Immigration Statistics release. This includes information on applications received, decisions made by sex, age and country of nationality.

  • 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 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32506, how many stages there are in the asylum claims process prior to screening and substantive interviews; and at what stage of that process family ties to refugees already granted asylum in the UK are considered.

    James Brokenshire

    Screening is the first stage in the asylum process after a claim has been lodged. Each claim is considered on its individual merits, usually following a substantive interview. Consideration of a claimant’s personal circumstances such as family ties to the UK will be made following the interview.

  • Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Dawn Butler – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dawn Butler on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she has received from professional linguists on the effectiveness of language analysis testing.

    James Brokenshire

    Language analysis assists us in determining whether asylum seekers are of the nationality or national origin they claim. It is one of the tools used by asylum decision makers to help resolve fairly issues of doubtful nationality or national origin and to ensure that those claiming asylum in a false identity are detected quickly. It does not replace the requirement during substantive interview to fully probe and investigate doubted nationality/national origin cases.

    Professional linguists have communicated with the Home Office regarding their particular preference for the different models available for language analysis testing. As part of the contract competition undertaken in 2014, language analysis companies provided strong evidence of the quality of the services offered. There are dedicated formal arrangements in place to monitor our suppliers’ compliance with the contract terms.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on which dates in 2014 enforced removals of people from Yemen who had unsuccessfully claimed asylum took place.

    James Brokenshire

    In 2014, there were 3 enforced removals of nationals of Yemen who had claimed asylum at some point; 1 in April to June 2014, 1 in July to September 2014 and 1 in October to December 2014.

    The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of persons removed or departed voluntarily from the UK within Immigration Statistics. The data on removals and voluntary departures are available in the latest release, Immigration Statistics: October to December 2015, table rv.03 from GOV.UK on the statistics web pages at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.

  • 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 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 12 April 2016 to Question 32506, how many (a) unaccompanied children and (b) partners of refugees who had already been granted asylum in the UK were granted asylum in the UK in each year since 2010.

    James Brokenshire

    I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer I gave on 15 March 2015 to his question 30648.

    The Home Office publishes quarterly figures on asylum claims from Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in the Immigration Statistics release. This includes information on applications received, decisions made by sex, age and country of nationality.

    The Home Office does not centrally record the number of people that apply for asylum who have a partner in the UK who has already been granted. This could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

  • 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 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to recruit more police firearms instructors as a result of the Government’s commitment to train 1,500 extra firearms officers by April 2018.

    Mike Penning

    At the Spending Review in December 2015, the Chancellor announced a major investment of £143 million to uplift armed policing capacity to respond more quickly and effectively to a marauding firearms attack.

    The Police have beenn working to allocate that spending to ensure maximum effect and are arranging for sufficient instructors and training places to be in place.

  • 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 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy that volunteers should not be used in the operational areas of (a) child sexual exploitation, (b) serious crime and (c) counter-terrorism under proposals in the Policing and Crime Bill.

    Mike Penning

    Our consultation on the reform of the roles and powers of civilians and volunteers demonstrated the demand from forces for flexibility in how they deploy volunteer staff, and therefore we should not make assumptions about the operational areas where volunteers can make a contribution. For example, they can play a hugely valuable role in supporting vulnerable victims. As Victim Support told the consultation: “enabling chief officers to designate powers to volunteers would allow them to assist police officers in supporting victims of crime and improving service delivery.”

    Volunteers will be subject to the same tests as police staff before they are designated with powers, namely that the chief officer must be satisfied that they are suitable, capable and adequately trained (that is, the tests set out in section 38(4) of the Police Reform Act 2002), so police forces will not be able to deploy volunteers on tasks they are not capable of performing.

    If it is acceptable to confer all the powers of a constable on one type of volunteer, namely special constables, it is inconsistent to object in principle to conferring a narrower set of powers on other suitably trained volunteers. Under this Bill, however, Parliament will retain control of the list of core powers that will only be available to police officers. For example, all powers under counter-terrorism legislation are listed in Schedule 7 to the Bill as core powers of police officers.

    These reforms will place the individual decision-making as to which personnel perform which roles firmly in the hands of chief officers, who have the professional expertise and local knowledge to know which powers are needed in their area. It is important that we do not restrict the operational powers of the police, who retain the right to deploy staff as they see fit.

  • Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times on which dates in 2014 specialist contractors were used to facilitate the enforced return to Yemen of people from that country who had unsuccessfully claimed asylum in the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    All escorting services to facilitate enforced returns are provided by the Home Office’s main contractor, Tascor. In 2014, detainee custody officers from the Pilgrims Group, who are sub-contracted by Tascor were used on one occasion on 23rd July to facilitate the enforced return of an individual to Yemen.