Tag: Keith Vaz

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-04-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by the UK Visa and Immigration Directorate on 1 April 2014.

James Brokenshire

The number of people (paid and unpaid civil servants as well as agency and
contractors substituting as civil servants) employed by UK Visas and
Immigration on 31st March 2014 was 7,107 (6,598.67 Full Time Equivalent).

In line with Office for National statistics guidelines, all government
departments are required to report their official statistics relating to
numbers of employees using calendar month end dates. This answer has therefore
been provided using information as at 31st March 2014 rather than 1st April
2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-04-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what budget is allocated to the UK Visa and Immigration Directorate.

James Brokenshire

UK Visa & Immigration Directorate Budget 2014/5

Resource Administration £13.6 million
Resource Programme £744.3 million
Income Programme £1,022.6 million
Capital £6.0 million

Source: Home Office Main Estimates published on 29th April 2014

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many marriages were reported to the Home Office as suspicious or sham in each year since 2009.

Karen Bradley

Sections 24 and 24A of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 place a duty on
registration officers to submit a report to the Home Office where they have
reasonable grounds to suspect that a marriage or civil partnership is a sham
being entered into for immigration purposes. Table 1 shows the
number of section 24/24A reports received in each year since 2009. Same sex
marriages only came into effect this year there is therefore no data relating
to this period, or for civil partnerships before 2011.

The Home Office Intelligence Management System (IMS) records allegations from
the public regarding immigration-related offences. Since 30 September 2012 we
have recorded the following numbers of reports relating to sham marriage as set
out in Table 2.
These figures relate to reports identified by the public as possible sham
marriage.

Table 1

Year	Number of section 24/24A reports	Of which refer civil partnerships
2009	561
2010	934
2011	1,741	28
2012	1,891	28
2013	2135	25

Table 2

Year	Number of reports relating to sham marriage recorded on IMS
2012 (from 30 September)	984
2013	6909

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many marriages reported as suspicious or sham were (a) same sex marriages, (b) heterosexual marriages and (c) civil partnerships in each year since 2009.

James Brokenshire

Sections 24 and 24A of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 place a duty on
registration officers to submit a report to the Home Office where they have
reasonable grounds to suspect that a marriage or civil partnership is a sham
being entered into for immigration purposes. Table 1 shows the
number of section 24/24A reports received in each year since 2009. Same sex
marriages only came into effect this year there is therefore no data relating
to this period, or for civil partnerships before 2011.

The Home Office Intelligence Management System (IMS) records allegations from
the public regarding immigration-related offences. Since 30 September 2012 we
have recorded the following numbers of reports relating to sham marriage as set
out in Table 2.
These figures relate to reports identified by the public as possible sham
marriage.

Table 1

Year	Number of section 24/24A reports	Of which refer civil partnerships
2009	561
2010	934
2011	1,741	28
2012	1,891	28
2013	2135	25

Table 2

Year	Number of reports relating to sham marriage recorded on IMS
2012 (from 30 September)	984
2013	6909

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which companies that have been asked to report on progress relating to the Responsibility Deal have not yet done so.

Jane Ellison

Reports from Responsibility Deal (RD) partners are published on the RD website as they are submitted and processed, which takes place throughout the year. Full details of the 675 partners signed up to the RD, the pledges they have signed up to and their annual updates are available on the RD website at:

https://responsibilitydeal.dh.gov.uk/partners/

As at 5 June 2014, more than 70% of expected reports had been submitted for the 2013-14 reporting cycle.

Partners new to the RD (signed up after 1 October 2013) and those signed up to new pledges launched during 2013, were not expected to provide an annual update. Other partners signed up to one or more of the majority of collective pledges were asked to provide an annual update.

The RD reporting cycle does not always map with organisations’ cycles (for example clearance at board level) and end of fiscal year is a busy period for most partners. Some updates will also be in a ‘draft’ status where they are partly completed by partners and not yet submitted. This means there can be delays, and we expect further submissions over the next few months. Partners can also update their submissions in-year, reporting on further progress made.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many meetings he has had with world leaders to discuss the situation in Yemen since 1 January 2013.

Hugh Robertson

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), as well as other FCO Ministers, have regular discussions on Yemen with their counterparts, particularly with those from the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Friends of Yemen Ministerial Group, which the UK hosted in London most recently on 29 April.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by HM Passport Office on 1 January (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014.

James Brokenshire

The formal record for workforce data is made on the last day of each calendar
month.

The data as of 31 December in each year were as follows.

31 December 2010: 3,700 full-time equivalents
31 December 2011: 3,286 full-time equivalents
31 December 2012: 3,164 full-time equivalents
31 December 2013: 3,333 full-time equivalents

These figures are for permanent civil servants employed by HMPO, including part
year appointments and permanent members of staff employed on contracts for nine
months of the year. This excludes staff on secondment or loan, and agency and
temporary staff – with these staff included, the March 2014 figure is 3,444.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people employed by HM Passport Office were specifically tasked with processing passport applications on 1 January, (a) 2011, (b) 2012, (c) 2013 and (d) 2014.

James Brokenshire

The table below shows the number of Her Majesty’s Passport Office full-time
equivalents working within the passport operational Directorates.

The formal record for workforce data is made on the last day of each calendar
month. We have therefore provided the data as of 31 December of each year.

(a) 2011: 2,360
(b) 2012: 2,265
(c) 2013: 2,457

Due to the limitations of the HR management system used prior to December 2010,
it is not possible to provide reliable management information below top level
for any periods prior to that date.