Tag: Stuart C. McDonald

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refused asylum seekers with dependants have been supported in Scotland under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 for (a) up to two years, (b) more than two years and (c) more than four years.

James Brokenshire

The table below shows the number of failed asylum seekers that have been supported under section 95 for the requested periods. This data defines refused asylum seekers as those who have been found to not require international protection and have received a final decision on their application.

Time on Support Count

Under 2 Years 251

Under 4 Years 120

Over 4 Years 13

Total = 384

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many care leavers in part or full-time education other than higher education aged between 19 and 21 in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015 were former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children looked after by the local authority.

Edward Timpson

The information requested is shown in the table below. This information is for England only.

Care leaver activity [2]	Number of former unaccompanied asylum seeking children [1]
2014	2015
Higher education	20	40
Education other than higher education	100	260
Training or employment	40	130

Source: SSDA903

Information on the activity of all care leavers in England has been published in tables F1 of the Statistical First Release on looked after children[3].

[1] This includes young people who were unaccompanied asylum seeking children in their final period of care.

[2] Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2014-to-2015

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish all correspondence between her Department and ETS relating to allegations of English language text fraud.

James Brokenshire

There are on-going criminal investigations and prosecutions into matters connected with cheating in ETS tests and it would be inappropriate to release any information or details of correspondence in the circumstances.

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 Serco for the region of Scotland and Northern Ireland, how many faults were reported or identified from Compass inspections for each contractual pay period in the years 2014-15 and 2015-16; and how many such 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 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will consider proposals put forward by the British Red Cross Torn Apart campaign to extend refugee family reunion to include young people over the age of 18 who were living with their parents when they were forced to flee.

James Brokenshire

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he plans to take to support access for independent monitors to (a) places of detention in Syria and (b) Saydnaya prison.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

I condemn the Asad regime’s arbitrary arrest, illegal detention and mistreatment of tens of thousands of Syrians and call for the release of all those arbitrarily detained, especially women and children, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions 2254 and 2268.

I fully support calls for access for independent monitors to all places of detention in Syria, including the regime’s notorious Saydnaya prison. The Government has sought to keep international focus on this issue, particularly via the UN. We have ensured that detention and mistreatment has featured in successive Syria resolutions of the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council, and will continue to do so. We also regularly raise detainee issues at the Task Forces of the International Syria Support Group in Geneva.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-01-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans the Government has to attempt to remove or deport refugees and asylum seekers at the the UK Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus to third countries.

Penny Mordaunt

Under Sovereign Base Areas legislation, people whose asylum claims fail are liable for deportation. Some applications for asylum in Cyprus are still being processed.

We will seek to deport those who have not claimed asylum or have had their application rejected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many care leavers in full or part-time higher education aged between 19 and 21 in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015 were former unaccompanied asylum seeking children looked after by the local authority.

Edward Timpson

The information requested is shown in the table below. This information is for England only.

Care leaver activity [2]	Number of former unaccompanied asylum seeking children [1]
2014	2015
Higher education	20	40
Education other than higher education	100	260
Training or employment	40	130

Source: SSDA903

Information on the activity of all care leavers in England has been published in tables F1 of the Statistical First Release on looked after children[3].

[1] This includes young people who were unaccompanied asylum seeking children in their final period of care.

[2] Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2014-to-2015

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stuart C. McDonald on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will commission an independent inquiry into the role of (a) her Department and (b) ETS related to allegations of English Language Test fraud.

James Brokenshire

The investigation into the abuse of English language testing in 2014 revealed extremely serious, large scale, organised fraud and it is right that the Home Office took decisive action in respect of those against whom there was evidence of cheating. We are disappointed by the decision of the Upper Tribunal and, once we have the full determination, we will consider our next steps carefully, including an appeal of this decision.

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 Serco for the region of North West England, 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.