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Written Question
Crime: Children
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many crimes were committed by children under the age of 10 in England in (a) 2018 and (b) 2023.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the investigative outcomes of crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. This includes the number of cases that were closed due to offender being below the age of criminal responsibility. This is recorded in the official statistics as outcome 11 “prosecution prevented: suspect under age” and the latest data can be accessed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables

This will not cover all offences committed by children under 10, as the Home Office recorded crime collection does not include all summary only offences, that is those that can only be dealt with at Magistrates Courts.


Written Question
British National (Overseas): Airports
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will set a target date for British National (Overseas) passport holders to be able to use eGates at the UK border.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Government regularly reviews eGate eligibility for all nationals arriving in the UK, including British National (Overseas) passport holders.

In the New Plan for Immigration, the Government set out our ambition to digitise the border. To deliver this we aim to increase the use of eGates at the border by those currently eligible and investigate options to extend eGate eligibility to those unable to use them. Any shorter-term changes need to be balanced against the impact these have on delivering the longer-term ambition.


Written Question
Police: Retirement
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when retired police officers subject to immediate detriment will be contacted with the resolution.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The relevant legislation provides that all eligible members of the police pension scheme will be given a choice to remedy the discrimination set out in the McCloud judgment and that information should be provided to eligible members by 1 April 2025.

Adjustments to individual members’ benefits are an administrative matter, and the police pension scheme is locally administered by each of the separate police forces in England and Wales. The Home Office does not hold information on administrative processes in forces.


Written Question
Speed Limits: Cameras
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the VECTOR-SR speed cameras are (a) visible to road users and (b) compliant with regulations.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government’s Home Office Type Approval (HOTA) process oversees the accuracy and reliability of vehicle speed measurement devices to ensure they meet the specified requirements.

It is up to the traffic authority, the police and other agencies to decide whether to install speed cameras and how they wish to operate them.

This is a local decision in which the Department does not become involved.


Written Question
Speed Limits: Cameras
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department had discussions with (a) road safety groups and (b) the public prior to the (i) approval and (ii) rollout of VECTOR-SR cameras.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government’s Home Office Type Approval (HOTA) process oversees the accuracy and reliability of vehicle speed measurement devices to ensure they meet the specified requirements.

It is up to the traffic authority, the police and other agencies to decide whether to install speed cameras and how they wish to operate them.

This is a local decision in which the Department does not become involved.


Written Question
Visas: Graduates
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether UK Visa and Immigration is meeting the eight-week service standard for processing graduate visas.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

We are operating within the eight-week service standard for Graduate applications.

Some applications may take longer if we have requested further information, or if their personal circumstances are complex. Further details can be found at Visa processing times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Home Office: Standards
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many investigations have been undertaken by his Department's professional standards unit in each year since 2015, broken down into the categories of (a) immigration, borders and citizenship, (b) policing and (c) counter-terrorism.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department.


Written Question
Migrants: Domestic Abuse
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing migrant victims of domestic abuse to access support from (a) police and (b) statutory services.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

Victims are entitled to access services under the Victims Code regardless of their resident status, including support services. They are rightly able to access statutory services irrespective of their immigration status and the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. As an example, the statutory guidance for the Duty to Provide Safe Accommodation under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act is clear that this provision is for all victims of domestic abuse, including migrant survivors with insecure immigration status.

The government has kept the range of support under review and have made recent changes.

We allocated up to £5.6 million from April 2021 until March 2025 for the Support for Migrant Victim Scheme, which provides a support net for migrant victims of abuse with no recourse to public funds. And we have expanded access to the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) to partners of workers or students, giving 3 months recourse to public funds whilst they potentially apply for an appropriate immigration status or return to their country of origin if it is safe for them to do so.


Written Question
Asylum: Hotels
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of hotel use for asylum seekers on community cohesion in Oldham; and when he plans to end the use of temporary accommodation for asylum seekers.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Asylum hotels were only ever a temporary measure, in response to an unprecedented spike in small boat arrivals and the statutory requirement to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute. The Government has always been clear that they are an inappropriate form of accommodation and that we must stop using them as soon as possible.

Wherever hotels are used, the Home Office works in partnership with local authorities and other statutory partners, including through multi-agency forum (MAF) meetings. These consider, amongst other things, community cohesion issues.

We will have closed 100 hotels by the end of March. We continue to work with our providers on closing further hotels across the estate and will write to local authorities and MPs when a decision to close a site has been made.


Written Question
Asylum: Employment
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of replacing the Shortage Occupation List with the Immigration Salary List on employment opportunities for asylum seekers who are eligible to work.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Secretary commissioned the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to carry out a rapid review of the new Immigration Salary List (ISL) ahead of the Spring Immigration Rules. Appendix Immigration Salary List can be found in the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 590, published on 14 March 2024. We will keep the list under review and the MAC will carry out a fuller review later in the year.

Replacing the new ISL will maintain the important principles that underpin our approach to permission to work by an individual’s asylum claim still being outstanding for 12 months or more, through no fault of their own. This includes the need to avoid creating perverse incentives for people to make dangerous journeys to the UK and to not undercut the resident labour market.