Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2024 to Question 23443 on Prostitution: Internet, whether his Department has received legal advice on the legality of the operations of adult services websites.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The acts of buying and selling sex are not in themselves illegal in England and Wales. Adult Service Websites are online advertising directories that provide a platform on which legitimate sex workers and escorts can advertise their services and are legal under current prostitution legislation.
Ministers responsible for the Safeguarding portfolio have met the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for sex work five times since 2017; at least two of those meetings were conducted virtually. The Home Office works closely with the police to cut crime and protect vulnerable people. Officials regularly meet representatives of NPCC portfolios as part of their routine engagement with the police.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times (a) Ministers and (b) officials have met the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for sex work (i) online and (ii) in person in each year since 2017.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The acts of buying and selling sex are not in themselves illegal in England and Wales. Adult Service Websites are online advertising directories that provide a platform on which legitimate sex workers and escorts can advertise their services and are legal under current prostitution legislation.
Ministers responsible for the Safeguarding portfolio have met the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for sex work five times since 2017; at least two of those meetings were conducted virtually. The Home Office works closely with the police to cut crime and protect vulnerable people. Officials regularly meet representatives of NPCC portfolios as part of their routine engagement with the police.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to enable cohabiting couples to share financial and property rights.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government considers that its existing work underway on the law of marriage and the Law Commission’s work on financial provision on divorce must conclude before considering any change to the law in respect of the rights of cohabitants. This is because any new legal rights and obligations afforded to cohabitants would necessarily need to be considered against a baseline of rights afforded to married parties or civil partners.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women have been detained pending deportation to Rwanda.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Individuals who were previously present in a safe third country and entered the UK by a dangerous and unnecessary method are liable to be relocated to Rwanda. As this is an ongoing operational matter it would be inappropriate to provide a running commentary on individual cases or numbers.
The Home Office publishes statistics on people in immigration detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. The number of people in detention at the end of each quarter are in table Det_D02 of the ‘Detention detailed datasets’, where the data can be broken down to identify the number of women. The latest data relate to as at the end of December 2023. Data as at the end of March 2024 will be published on 23 May 2024.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of (a) women and (b) men who have arrived in the UK by small boat in 2024 are receiving accommodation support.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Data is published on a quarterly basis.
The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of statistics which disaggregates by method of arrival.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of the people identified by his Department as eligible for deportation to Rwanda are women.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Individuals who were previously present in a safe third country and entered the UK by a dangerous and unnecessary method are liable to be relocated to Rwanda. As this is an ongoing operational matter it would be inappropriate to provide a running commentary on individual cases or numbers.
The Home Office publishes statistics on people in immigration detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. The number of people in detention at the end of each quarter are in table Det_D02 of the ‘Detention detailed datasets’, where the data can be broken down to identify the number of women. The latest data relate to as at the end of December 2023. Data as at the end of March 2024 will be published on 23 May 2024.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 23168 on Asylum: Rwanda, what detention capacity the Home Office had on 24 April (a) 2023, (b) 2024, (c) 2021 and (d) 2020.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
On 24 April 2020 the capacity of the immigration detention estate was c2300 immigration removal centre (IRC) beds (if all rooms and beds were in use). As a result of operational changes including the closure of Morton Hall IRC, detention capacity reduced to c1700 IRC beds on 24 April 2021, rising to c2158 IRC beds on 24 April 2023 and c2200 IRC beds on 24 April 2024, with more coming online in the coming months.
Immigration detention capacity figures are not static and are subject to operational demands.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 23170 on Asylum: Rwanda, how many field visits within Rwanda by the Monitoring Committee of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership have been scheduled for 2024.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Full details of the Monitoring Committee’s Terms of Reference and Monitoring Plan can be found here: Monitoring Committee: Migration and Economic Development Partnership - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
As set out in the monitoring plan, monitoring, especially in the enhanced phase, will be agile and responsive to operational activity so there will be a rolling presence of the Monitoring Committee and Support Team at different locations, rather than a set schedule of visits.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the level of risk to women and girls arriving in the UK via small boats of trafficking for sexual exploitation in 2024.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Home Office publishes statistics on small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release. Data on small boat arrivals by year, sex and age group is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of December 2023.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Future irregular migration publication release dates can be found on the research and statistics calendar.
No assessment has been made of the risk to woman and girls arriving in the UK via small boats to trafficking for sexual exploitation. However, all individuals arriving on small boats will be assessed on arrival, including assessments to identify vulnerability and safeguarding needs. Where there are indicators of modern slavery, the individual will be referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM aims to lift victims out of situations of exploitation, provide them with a short period of intensive support and specialist care, and put them in a position where they can begin to rebuild their lives with increased resilience against future exploitation. In the last two years alone almost 30,000 people have had access to the protections of the NRM.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) women and (b) girls have arrived in the UK via small boats in each year since 2018.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Home Office publishes statistics on small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release. Data on small boat arrivals by year, sex and age group is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of December 2023.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Future irregular migration publication release dates can be found on the research and statistics calendar.
No assessment has been made of the risk to woman and girls arriving in the UK via small boats to trafficking for sexual exploitation. However, all individuals arriving on small boats will be assessed on arrival, including assessments to identify vulnerability and safeguarding needs. Where there are indicators of modern slavery, the individual will be referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM aims to lift victims out of situations of exploitation, provide them with a short period of intensive support and specialist care, and put them in a position where they can begin to rebuild their lives with increased resilience against future exploitation. In the last two years alone almost 30,000 people have had access to the protections of the NRM.