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  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 24 December 2015 to Questions 19956 and 19957, how many migrants granted leave to remain in the UK did not have No Recourse to public funds conditions imposed on them because of exceptional circumstances in (a) 2008, (b) 2009 and (c) 2010.

    James Brokenshire

    The number of cases in which leave to remain in the UK was granted that did not have No Recourse to Public Funds conditions imposed on them in the years 2008 to 2010 was as follows:

    2008: 3,490

    2009: 7,795

    2010: 9,020

    These figures have been provided by the Home Office database with figures rounded to the nearest 5, interpreting ‘migrants’ as ‘lead cases’ and excluding asylum applications.

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent laundered money entering the London housing market.

    Mike Penning

    The Government is committed to protecting the integrity of our financial system and to ensuring that the UK is a hostile environment for illicit finance, to protect our national security and promote growth. The Government is also committed to ensuring that we maintain a robust and proportionate anti-money laundering regime.

    Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the anti money laundering supervisor of estate agents and takes a robust, intelligence led approach to ensuring compliance with the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 (the Regulations). An estate agent should not operate as such unless they are registered with HMRC under Regulations. It is an offence to carry out relevant business without registering with HMRC and the Estate Agency Business (EAB) may be penalised or face criminal prosecution if they fail to do. All those dealing with property transactions in the UK are regulated for money laundering purposes, including banks, the legal and accountancy sectors, and estate agents, and are required to report suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency. The Suspicious Activity Reports regime is currently being reviewed to make it a more effective mechanism for identifying money laundering and terrorist financing.

    The National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing was published on 15 October 2015. This identified the threats and vulnerabilities we face in these areas, and an Action Plan will be published shortly, setting out the steps that the Government will take to address them.

    The Prime Minister made clear in his Singapore speech on corruption last year that the Government is determined to make sure the UK does not become a safe haven for corrupt money. As a first step he asked the Land Registry to publish data on which foreign companies own which land and property titles in England and Wales. The Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Summit in May will also consider what more the Government can do to tackle flows of illicit finance at home and abroad.

  • Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Helen Goodman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) arrests and (b) convictions for laundering money there were from which countries in each year between 2010 and 2015.

    Mike Penning

    The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK has a robust anti-money laundering regime. The National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing was published on 15 October 2015. This identified the threats and vulnerabilities we face in these areas, and an action plan will be published shortly, setting out the steps that we will take to address them.

    To lead our law enforcement response to this threat, in 2013 the Government created the Economic Crime Command (ECC) of the National Crime Agency (NCA). The ECC has established a new International Corruption Unit in the NCA to provide a single centre of excellence in this field.

    The Home Office collects data on arrests at offence group level, which includes groups such as ‘fraud and forgery’ and ‘theft and handling stolen goods’. Details on arrests for specific offences are not centrally collected.

    The number of people prosecuted, convicted and given a custodial sentence for money laundering offences, in England and Wales, from 2004 to 2014 (the latest data available), can be viewed on the Ministry of Justice website at the following link:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014

    Under “Criminal justice statistics outcomes by offence data tool” by selecting the offence: 38 Money laundering. The Ministry of Justice is unable to identify from centrally held data the country of origin of a defendant convicted of a money laundering offence or the country where the money originated from.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent assessment her Department has made of the terrorist threat from dissident Irish Republicans to the UK mainland.

    Mrs Theresa Villiers

    The threat to Great Britain from Northern Ireland Related Terrorism is currently assessed to be MODERATE, meaning an attack is possible but not likely. There were no Northern Ireland Related Terrorism attacks in Great Britain last year, but there were 16 in Northern Ireland where the threat is considered to be SEVERE. This means an attack is highly likely. Threat levels are of course kept under regular review.

  • Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average cost was to the public purse of the (a) detention and (b) deportation of each illegal immigrant in each constituency in each of the last three years.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office does not hold this information centrally. It cannot be collated, except at disproportionate cost.

  • Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost was to the public purse of immigration holding and removal centres in each of the last three years.

    James Brokenshire

    Detention costs are published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, copies of which are available from the Vote Office

    Costs (£,000):

    2014-15 £136,926

    2013-14 £143,549

    2012-13 £132,696

    Included in this figure are the accommodation costs – building, staff, catering, bedding – for the services provided under both private contracts and by Central Government. Also included are the cost of holding individuals in police cells, where an individual is subsequently transferred to Immigration Enforcement.

  • Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 6 January 2016 to Questions 21298 and 21317 on detention: centres, if she will take steps to collect the information referred to and to publish it on a regular basis.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office has no plans to collect or publish the information referred to in Questions 21298 and 21319. Question 21317 had not been answered when this Question was tabled.

  • Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the guidance on how to make a request for revocation of a deportation order will be republished; and if she will make a statement.

    James Brokenshire

    The process of reviewing and revising the guidance is nearing completion, and I anticipate that an updated version will be made available in the Spring of 2016.

    In the interim, current guidance covering various aspects of deportation order revocation can be found online as below:

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-part-13-deportation – paragraphs 390-391 of the Immigration Rules set out the current rules for revocation of a deportation order, and how criminality impacts on this.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chapter-13-criminality-guidance-in-article-8-echr-cases – where family and/or private life considerations are relevant to an application for revocation, this guidance explains how these are considered under Paragraphs 398-399D of the Immigration Rules.

  • MiDavies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    MiDavies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by MiDavies on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 18753, whether the assessment of the FRANK website was based solely on preventing drug use.

    Karen Bradley

    The purpose of the Frank website survey 2013 was to assess: website users’ experiences, the information they accessed, their general satisfaction with the website and their intended behaviour after visiting the website.

  • Barbara Keeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Barbara Keeley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barbara Keeley on 2016-01-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many and what proportion of GP surgeries offer extended opening hours.

    Alistair Burt

    We are committed to transforming general practice, and ensuring general practitioner (GP) services are available seven days a week by 2020. Of the total 7,875 GP surgeries in England, over 2,500 practices are involved in the Prime Minister’s GP Access Fund and are currently offering improved access, including extended hours, to around 17 million patients according to the latest figures.

    Additionally, the Extended Hours Directed Enhanced Service (DES), in place since 2008/09, is a way that GP practices are incentivised to offer extended access through the contract. 5,875 practices received a payment for 2014/15, totalling £83.984 million. Practices providing this DES could also be taking part in the GP Access Fund. Key requirements include the provision of additional clinical sessions (routine appointments including emergency appointments), provided outside of core contracted hours, in keeping with patient preference.