Tag: Thangam Debbonaire

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance she has provided for her officials on the identification, screening and processing of people potentially entitled to make an application for family reunion under the Dublin III Regulation.

James Brokenshire

The UK is working with other EU Member States to ensure that the process for applications for family reunion under the Dublin III Regulation is running effectively and efficiently. We have seconded experts to certain other EU countries to assist with this. They are working in accordance with guidance and processes issued by the European Asylum Support Office and the relevant governmental authority.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 37452, if she will commission detailed monitoring of the effect of local authority funding reductions on local authority museum and gallery (a) opening hours, (b) staffing, (c) specific activities and (d) closures.

Karen Bradley

Arts Council England is gathering data on the effects of changes to local authority funding.

This Department is also undertaking a Museums Review of the whole museums sector, as announced in the recent Culture White Paper. The Review will be looking at a range of challenges facing the sector and will include museums in receipt of funding from local authorities as well as those which are independent from public funding.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by which date she expects to have resettled 3,000 at risk child asylum-seekers and their families from the Middle East and North Africa to the UK.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government has committed to resettling to the UK up to 3,000 individuals under a scheme designed to protect vulnerable children in the Middle East and North Africa over the lifetime of this Parliament. There will be a review of the scheme at the two year mark.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what steps the Government plans to take to protect the property ownership rights of UK citizens who own property in the EU after the UK has left the EU who (a) use the property primarily to rent out to others for holidays, (b) are the sole users, for holiday purposes and (c) are the sole users, and live there permanently.

Mr Robin Walker

At every step of these negotiations we will work to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people, including those living in other EU countries or who own property in the EU. It is already the case that all Member States are bound by Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights which obliges them to respect property rights.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department has taken to assess the impact of hydraulic fracturing in (a) national parks and (b) other environmentally sensitive areas.

Andrea Leadsom

The Government issued guidance on its planning policy on unconventional hydrocarbon development in National Parks, the Broads, AONBs and World Heritage Sites in July 2014, which clearly sets out the high level of protection accorded to these areas in respect to development.1

In addition, in July 2015 the Government laid draft regulations that define protected areas in which hydraulic fracturing will be prohibited. These regulations ensure that the process of high volume hydraulic fracturing cannot take place at depths above 1200 metres in National Parks, the Broads, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, World Heritage Sites and areas that are most vulnerable to groundwater pollution.2

We have also separately committed to ensuring that fracking cannot be conducted from wells that are drilled in the UK’s most valuable areas and are minded to apply these in Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Ramsar and Natura 2000 sites, as well as the areas covered by the draft Protected Areas regulations.3

[1]http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/blog/guidance/minerals/planning-for-hydrocarbon-extraction/determining-the-planning-application/

2]https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-defines-protected-areas-for-shale-developments

[3]https://www.gov.uk/guidance/oil-and-gas-licensing-rounds#surface-development-restrictions

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to close HM Prison Bristol.

Andrew Selous

On 9 November 2015, the Chancellor and Secretary of State announced their intention to build a prison estate which allows prisoners to be rehabilitated, thereby enabling them to turn away from a life of crime. This will involve building nine new prisons and closing old and inefficient prisons.

No decisions have yet been made on which prisons will be closed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for refugee family reunion from each country of nationality of such applicants were (a) submitted, (b) decided and (c) granted in 2015.

James Brokenshire

The published statistics relate to the ‘Family: other’ category, the vast majority of which are for family reunion. Data for applications, decisions, of which grants and refusals, withdrawns/lapsed, and grants by nationality, is given in the attached tables.

The latest quarterly Home Office immigration statistics on entry clearance visas are published in ‘Immigration Statistics, October-December 2015’, available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-04-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of the presence of multilingual children in schools on the learning of monolingual children.

Nick Gibb

Analysis undertaken by the Centre for the Economics of Education in 2012 indicates that there is no association between the presence of children whose first language is not English and the educational attainment of their native English-speaking peers, after controlling for basic demographic characteristics and the schools these pupils attend.

In our recent consultation on a new national funding formula for schools, we proposed including an EAL factor in the formula. We are currently considering responses to the consultation and will come forward with further proposals in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that unaccompanied child refugees have access to information in a form and language appropriate to their age and language on their rights to apply for asylum or family reunion which includes information on the criteria used in and estimated timescales for determining applications.

James Brokenshire

Unaccompanied asylum seeking children who have arrived in the UK are referred to local authority children’s services as soon as possible.

As well as social work support, they have access to publicly-funded legal advice in relation to their asylum claim, to advice and guidance on the asylum process from the Refugee Council Children’s Panel, and to an interpreter if English is not their first language.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2016 to Question 37587, whether she is taking steps to reduce the time taken to process applications for the remaining children in refugee camps in Calais.

Mike Penning

Where an asylum claim is lodged in France by a minor with close family connections to the UK, both governments are committed to ensuring that process are in place to expedite reunification. Under the UK-France Joint Declaration of 20 August 2015, the UK and France have committed to ensuring that the provisions of the Dublin III Regulation are used efficiently and effectively. To assist the handling of such cases, the two Governments have established a permanent official contact group, agreed single points of contact within respective Dublin Units and the UK has seconded an asylum expert to the French administration to improve all stages of the process of identifying, protecting and transferring relevant cases to the UK. We continue to work with the French Government to improve processes.