Tag: Stuart C. McDonald

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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Compass asylum accommodation contract with G4S for the region of North East England and Yorkshire and Humber, how many faults were reported or identified from Compass inspections for each contractual pay period in 2014-15 and 2015-16; and how many such faults were not resolved within the agreed contractual timescales.

James Brokenshire

Providers are contractually required to provide safe, habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped accommodation to comply with the Housing Act 2004 and the Decent Homes Standard. Providers are monitored closely to ensure accommodation meets these standards and the contracts include measures to ensure any issues are quickly addressed. These performance standards are defined in the contract and are managed using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including those which measure whether an individual property is compliant with contractual obligations following an inspection and also the number of service users effected if a fault is not repaired within the contract timescales.

The Home Office does not centrally record the number of individual faults reported or identified during accommodation inspections, or the number of individual faults not resolved within the agreed timescales. The requested information could therefore only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what other migration routes or visas are available to a Tier 2 worker earning under £35,000 other than visas requiring participation in full-time education or marriage.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office published a full impact assessment on the changes to Tier 2 settlement rules when they were laid before Parliament on 15 March 2012. The impact assessment is available on the gov.uk website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/117957/impact-assessment-tier2.pdf.

Alternative routes available for Tier 2 workers unable to meet the minimum earnings threshold would depend on their individual circumstances. For the most part, economic migrants who wish to change their basis of stay in the UK are expected to leave and re-apply for an alternative visa from their home country. However, in-country switching is permitted in some categories, for example into Tier 1 routes aimed at high value migrants.

Tier 2 migrants who apply for settlement and do not meet the requirements will be refused. Those who do not qualify for an alternative route and have reached the maximum period of limited leave allowed under Tier 2 should make plans to leave the United Kingdom. Any migrant who has over stayed the validity of their visa or otherwise failed to regularise their stay in the UK may be removed if they refuse or fail to leave of their own volition. They may also be liable to prosecution under the Immigration Act 1971.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which exceptional circumstances applied to each grant of family reunion made outside the rules during the last five years.

James Brokenshire

The Home Office does not hold the specific information in the format requested. The questions cover a number of different casework operations and the information is not recorded centrally in a way which can be reported on directly.

To obtain the information would involve examining individual case records and would incur disproportionate cost. We do not currently plan to change the data that is centrally recorded and published on this category of applications.