Tag: Lord Hylton

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-11-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what powers they have to insist that recipients of British development aid should respect freedom of conscience and religion, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Baroness Verma

The UK attaches great importance to ensuring that people of all faiths can participate fully in society and live without fear of abuse or discrimination. DFID works closely with the FCO to raise concerns about freedom of religion with partner governments to ensure that all citizens can claim their rights. The UK’s development and humanitarian aid is not targeted at specific groups but at the poorest, regardless of race, religion, creed, or nationality.

Before providing aid to a foreign government, DFID assesses the government’s commitment to four partnership principles, one of which concerns human rights. DFID provides aid to governments where we are satisfied that they share our commitments to reduce poverty and to respect human rights.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-12-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussion, if any, they have had with the government of Turkey and the UNHCR about urgent plans for the return home of Yazidi refugees, currently in a camp near Diyarbakir.

Baroness Verma

The UK Government is not aware of plans to return Yezidi refugees to their homes from Diyarbakir. The UK works with the Government of Turkey, the United Nations and the international community to support the rights of all minorities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-12-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the Resolution of the House of Commons of 10 September calling on them to implement the recommendations of the report of the Inquiry into the Use of Immigration Detention in the United Kingdom, by the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Refugees and Migration.

Lord Bates

Detention plays a vital role in maintaining effective immigration control and there are safeguards in place to prevent unnecessary or arbitrary detention.

Turning to the principal recommendations of the APPG report, though a common misconception, we cannot detain indefinitely under immigration powers. There are significant, long standing and highly effective protections for individuals against indefinite detention in the current system. A statutory limit is therefore not necessary.

An arbitrary time limit would potentially allow criminals and non-compliant individuals to play the system knowing that if they refuse to cooperate with removal for long enough they will be released.

The Home Office is conducting detailed analysis of the use of immigration detention including looking at the checks and balances in the systems to ensure that there is a more efficient and more effective process so that people are removed more swiftly.

The Home Secretary commissioned an independent review of the policies and operating procedures that have an impact on detainee welfare earlier this year. Stephen Shaw CBE, former Prisons and Probation Ombudsman for England and Wales, undertook the review and has recently submitted his report. The report will be published by laying it before Parliament, alongside the Government’s response to its recommendations, before the Lords Committee stage for the Immigration Bill.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-01-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the effectiveness of EU aid to developing countries.

Baroness Verma

The UK continues to work hard to ensure EU development aid focuses on the poorest and most fragile countries and that the EU becomes more open and transparent about the challenges it faces in implementing aid projects. The EU has taken important steps to improve gender equality; to communicate better what its aid programmes are achieving; and for its aid to be more closely linked to countries’ own development priorities and more in line with other EU policies including trade, investment and the environment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many persons or family groups have received exceptional leave to enter or remain in the UK, outside the normal rules, for purposes of family re-union, in each year since 2011; and in each of those years, how many of those individuals given leave were related in ways other than as spouses or children under 18.

Lord Bates

The specific information is not available in the format requested.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-22.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when and where they will establish application procedures for the new funds they are providing to assist the education of the children of refugees and displaced people from Iraq and Syria.

Baroness Verma

At the Supporting Syria and the Region conference, the UK committed to more than double our total pledge to the Syria crisis to over £2.3 billion. Within this allocation, we committed to double education funding for Lebanon to £40 million per year and increase funding in Jordan to £20 million a year to support the conference goal of getting all refugee children from Syria and vulnerable children in host communities in quality education by the end of the 2016/17 school year. We also committed to increasing access to learning for the 2.1 million children out of school in Syria itself.

Implementation plans to deliver the Conference goals on education are currently being discussed with partner governments, UN agencies, NGOs and donors. New UK funding will be aligned with these plans, and will be implemented through partners who can deliver increases in access to quality education, quickly, efficiently and at scale. Implementing partners will be identified selected in accordance with normal DFID procedures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-03-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Lord Bates on 2 March (HL Deb, col 824), what qualifications they consider to be adequate for persons conducting the substantive interviews of asylum applicants, with authority to recommend acceptance or rejection of their claims; and what assessment they have made of whether gap-year and undergraduate students, after five weeks of training, have sufficient maturity and empathy to take such decisions.

Lord Bates

Decision makers working on asylum casework are graded at Executive Officer level except in the suspended Detained Fast Track operation where the predominate grade is Higher Executive Officer due to the requirement on some decision makers to also present appeals. The general entry requirement for direct recruitment to either grade is a minimum of 2 GCE A Level passes A-C and 5 GCSE passes including Mathematics and English. We have also employed staff on temporary contracts but have required them to have a minimum 2:2 Degree, preferably in law.

We recruit high performing students from various universities as asylum decision makers on fixed term appointments and since 2009 have employed 11 law undergraduates of whom 2 are still employed. Applicants send in their CVs, and these are used to inform an initial sift of applications. Successful candidates are then invited to a competency based interview with Home Office staff which tests their maturity and suitability to carry out the role.

At the end of the 5 week training, that all decision makers receive, there is a six month period of mentoring, continued assessment and quality analysis of newly qualified decision maker’s work that identifies whether an individual is performing the role to the required quality standards. Before any individual is signed off their initial probationary period and confirmed in role they must be considered to be performing the role to the previously referenced quality standards.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-04-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are making representations to the government of Turkey about the treatment of Syrian refugees in that country.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Turkey is generously hosting over 2.7 million Syrian refugees and has provided Syrians in Turkey with access to healthcare, education and legal employment. We raise any concerns concerning the treatment of Syrian refugees with the Government of Turkey.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-04-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will discuss with Amnesty International the evidence that it has collected that the government of Turkey has in Hatay Province been expelling groups of Syrians almost daily since mid-January.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We are in regular contact with Amnesty International in Turkey and would be happy to discuss evidence of specific cases.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-05-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what response they have made to the British Red Cross campaign Torn Apart; and in particular whether they now plan to widen family reunion rules to include children over 18 years of age who previously lived with their parents.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

There are no plans to extend the family reunion criteria. The current policy meets our international obligations and strikes the right balance. Where family members cannot meet the requirements of the Immigration Rules, such as in the case of an 18 year old applying to join their refugee parents in the UK, we consider whether there are exceptional circumstances or compassionate reasons to justify granting entry clearance outside the Rules.