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  • 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 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of language analysis testing of asylum applicants; and if she will carry out a review of her Department’s policy on such testing.

    James Brokenshire

    The Government has no current plans to revise the existing Equality Act exemptions relating to language analysis testing.

    No further nationalities have been added to the Equality Act exemption authorisation since it was introduced in 2013.

    A review on language analysis use was undertaken in 2011 and published in 2012.

    (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/257177/language-analysis.pdf).

    No further such review is presently planned. However, we do monitor the use of language analysis regularly to ensure it is used as effectively as possible and to identify new trends in nationality swapping.

  • Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Stuart C. McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on reconsidering the cases of people who had their leave to remain wrongly cancelled, or who were wrongly detained or removed, on the basis of allegations of fraud in English language tests made by ETS in response to the Upper Tribunal ruling in Qadir v Secretary of State, 23 March 2016.

    James Brokenshire

    We received the determination in the case of Qadir and SM from Upper Tribunal on 8 April which provides the full reasons for the decision which were not included in the summary handed down on 23 March. Although the Upper Tribunal found that the Home Office did discharge the evidential burden on it in establishing fraud at ETS test centres and that each appellant would need to establish an innocent explanation, it went on to allow the appeals. We are disappointed by the decision and we are currently reviewing it with a view to challenging before the Court Of Appeal. Given this there are no current plans to reconsider earlier decisions.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the quantity of cannabis recovered from cannabis factories in the UK in each of the last 10 years.

    Karen Bradley

    The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the quantity of cannabis recovered specifically from cannabis factories in the UK. However, the Home Office does hold data on the total quantity of cannabis seized in England and Wales.

    The statistical release ‘Drug Seizures in England and Wales, 2014/15’ covers the number and quantity of drug seizures made by both police forces and Border Force in England and Wales from 2006/07 to 2014/15.

    The publication contains the number and quantity of seizures of herbal cannabis, resin cannabis, and cannabis plants for England and Wales only. The Home Office does not hold information centrally on the number of drug seizures in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

    The publication can be found at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seizures-of-drugs-in-england-and-wales-financial-year-ending-2015

    Data specifically on the quantity of cannabis seizures, made by police forces and Border Force in England and Wales, can be found in Summary Table 2 of the data tables.

    Border Force publishes the number and quantity of seizures of drugs at the UK border on Gov.UK:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/border-force-transparency-data-february-2016

  • Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK visitor visas were issued in China in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014 and (d) 2015.

    James Brokenshire

    The available information relates to Chinese nationals and is provided in the table below.

    UK Entry clearance visitor visas granted: Chinese nationals
    (including dependants)

    2012: 210,344
    2013: 291,826
    2014: 327,349
    2015: 397,764

    Notes

    The figures above represent entry clearance visitor visas issued worldwide to Chinese nationals, not visas issued in China.

    Source: Table vi_06_q_o, Immigration Statistics, October to December 2015

    The latest quarterly Home Office immigration statistics on entry clearance visitor visas granted are published in ‘Immigration Statistics, October-December 2015’, Visas volume 3 table vi_06_q_o available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015/list-of-tables#visas

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many harassment warning notices were issued by police forces in the last 12 months for which figures are available; and how many people who received such notices were subsequently prosecuted for harassment offences.

    Mike Penning

    The information requested is not collected centrally. The issuance of Police Information Notices (PINs) is an operational matter for police forces. Responsibility for the publication of information relating to PINs rests with Chief Constables.

  • Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average cost to the public purse was of processing a UK visitor visa through centres in China in the last 12 months.

    James Brokenshire

    These costs are not broken down to show costs by location.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2016 to Question 31313, on immigration controls: EU nationals, what monitoring is in place to prevent people refused entry from entering the UK.

    James Brokenshire

    The UK operates a secure border which involves carrying out 100% checks on arriving passengers from Continental Europe in order to identify people of concern seeking to enter the country. All passengers are checked against police, security and immigration watchlists and where we are aware of individuals who pose a risk, Border Force officers can – and do – refuse them entry. Checks are also carried out against the vast majority of passengers before they arrive in the UK and, where we can, we stop them from travelling in the first place.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2016 to Question 31475, on deportation: EU nationals, how many EEA foreign national offenders deported on the basis of a criminal conviction have subsequently re-entered the UK in each year since 2011-12.

    James Brokenshire

    This information is not held centrally.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31330, on deportation: EU nationals, how many EEA foreign national offenders deported have subsequently re-entered the UK in each year since 2006.

    James Brokenshire

    This information is not held centrally.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Anne-Marie Trevelyan on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2016 to Question 31329, on deportation: EU nationals, how many EEA foreign national offenders were awaiting deportation in December of each of the last 10 years.

    James Brokenshire

    Removals have been increasing year on year since 2010. In 2015, we removed 5,602 FNOs and over 29,000 foreign national offenders have been removed since 2010. Our records indicate that as of December 2015, there were 4,217 EEA foreign national offenders awaiting deportation.

    Please find table below with the number of EEA foreign national offenders who were awaiting deportation in December since 2010.

    Dec-10

    Dec-11

    Dec-12

    Dec 13

    Dec 14

    Dec 15

    Total EEA FNO Stock

    2,715

    2,955

    3,130

    3,212

    3,795

    4,217

    (1) The figures quoted have been derived from management information from the Home Office databases and are therefore provisional and subject to change. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols.

    (2) The data provided is up to December 2015. This is not routinely published data. General protocol is that the figures should not breach the National Statistics, so we are not able to disclose figures that are for a later period than those that we have published. Published figures are available up to 31 December 2015. (3) A Foreign National Offender (FNO) is defined as an individual with a criminal case on the Home Office’s Case Information Database (CID) and may include individuals with asylum cases. (4) Due to changes in reporting, comparable data is not available prior to 2010. (5) EEA national figures inclusive of Irish nationals.