Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he is taking steps to encourage (a) alternative working and (b) other arrangements to support people in police forces with (i) additional needs, (ii) disabilities and (iii) other health conditions.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 20,000-officer uplift provided a once in a generation opportunity to support forces to become more representative of the communities they serve, and to create a foundation from which forces can continue to make further improvements in future.
As a result of the police uplift, the police officer workforce is now more representative than it has ever been. As at 31 March 2023, there are 53,080 female police officers (headcount) which represents the highest number on record, accounting for 35.5% of officers.
The learning generated during the Uplift has been captured and shared with forces via the online Uplift Hub. This is now being used by forces to support ongoing recruitment activity and strong evidence-led retention strategies to support officers in their careers. Dedicated learning is also available on the Uplift Hub on improving representation.
In order to support forces to recruit and retain officers from diverse backgrounds and promote inclusivity, the College of Policing has also created a toolkit for forces to support the development of flexible and/or part-time working pathways as well as a Workplace Adjustment Toolkit for forces.
Through the Police Covenant, we have also appointed the first Chief Medical Officer for policing who is developing a national health strategy for all staff and officers.
Whilst progress has been made, there remains more work to be done by forces to increase representation in policing. The Government also continues to work with forces to ensure that they put the right support in place to enable officers and staff with additional needs, disabilities or other health conditions to enable them to thrive in their careers and continue to serve the public.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of trends in the level of police officer resignations; and what steps he is taking to ensure the (a) adequacy of police officer numbers and (b) long-term sustainability of the workforce.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government has delivered its commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers. There are now over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, higher than the previous peak before the Police Uplift Programme (PUP), in March 2010 before our unprecedented recruitment drive.
The retention of police officers remains a priority for the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). Voluntary resignation rates, at around 3%, are low compared to other sectors.
Forces plan their ongoing recruitment to replace officers who leave, and in order to maintain officer numbers. They have been fully funded to recruit and maintain the 20,000 additional officers and that is what they are doing.
As part of the funding announced in the police funding settlement for 2024/25, £425 million has been allocated to forces which Police and Crime Commissioners can access if they maintain officer numbers.
As part of the PUP we created the Uplift Hub, an online resource for all forces that contains learning, insights and guidance generated during the programme, themed around Attraction, Recruitment, Onboarding and Retention. Forces are already accessing this learning to support retention activity which is ensuring officers are supported.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of his Department’s (a) advertising and (b) marketing expenditure was on (i) local newspapers in print and online, (ii) national newspapers in print and online, (iii) social media, (iv) search engines, (v) broadcast and on-demand television and (vi) other channels in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the information broken down in this way internally.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that people with similar names to people on watchlists are not harassed during border checks at airports.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Our priority is to maintain a secure border. We will not compromise on this. Border Force performs checks on all passengers arriving at the UK border on scheduled services to identify individuals who pose, or are suspected to pose, a risk to the national interest.
Identities, and combinations of names and dates of birth, are not necessarily unique. Individuals who share names with persons of interest may experience closer examination than would otherwise be the case.
The Home Office is making significant investment to improve the underlying technical infrastructure which performs border checks to identify individuals more precisely. This will reduce the number of individuals incorrectly matched to persons of interest and enable Border Force to identify more quickly individuals who are not to be confused with persons of interest. We expect these improvements to start having effect over the summer.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason sponsors are required to obtain consent from people they are sponsoring abroad before his Department will process queries; and what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of this change on the processing time of sponsorship cases.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Data protection legislation requires the sponsor of an application to have written consent from the applicant giving them permission to receive information about their immigration matter before the Home Office can share details about the application with the sponsor.
The processing of applications is not itself affected by this requirement.
For MP enquiries, the MP Account Management (MPAM) Team require third party constituents to provide evidence of permission to show they are acting on behalf of another data subject. This is known as a Letter of Authority (LOA). MPs are given five working days to provide an LOA. If the MP has difficulties obtaining a LOA in this period, the Home Office will extend this period as long as they are notified that an extension is required within the original 5 working day window.
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 has taken to support sponsors in obtaining consent from persons abroad within the five-day deadline; and what support his Department provides for cases where obtaining such consent within the deadline is not possible.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Data protection legislation requires the sponsor of an application to have written consent from the applicant giving them permission to receive information about their immigration matter before the Home Office can share details about the application with the sponsor.
The processing of applications is not itself affected by this requirement.
For MP enquiries, the MP Account Management (MPAM) Team require third party constituents to provide evidence of permission to show they are acting on behalf of another data subject. This is known as a Letter of Authority (LOA). MPs are given five working days to provide an LOA. If the MP has difficulties obtaining a LOA in this period, the Home Office will extend this period as long as they are notified that an extension is required within the original 5 working day window.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an estimate of the number of asylum seekers presenting as homeless.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Asylum seekers are not eligible for statutory homelessness assistance. The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their application for asylum is being considered.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when people whose cases had been on hold as part of the Review of applications by Tier 1 (General) migrants refused under paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Rules and where time spent in the UK as such a migrant formed a part of the consideration can expect to receive a decision on their outstanding applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not publish statistics on legacy cases.
Currently, there is one outstanding case which will be concluded shortly.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of the applications from Tier 1 (General) migrants which were refused under paragraph 322(5) that were subject to review have been decided following the completion of the Review of applications by Tier 1 (General) migrants refused under paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Rules.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not publish statistics on legacy cases.
Currently, there is one outstanding case which will be concluded shortly.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the treatment that people with similar names to people on watchlists receive during border checks at airports.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Our priority is to maintain a secure border. We will not compromise on this. Border Force performs checks on all passengers arriving at the UK border on scheduled services to identify individuals who pose, or are suspected to pose, a risk to the national interest.
Identities, and combinations of names and dates of birth, are not necessarily unique. Individuals who share names with persons of interest may experience closer examination than would otherwise be the case.
The Home Office is making significant investment to improve the underlying technical infrastructure which performs border checks to identify individuals more precisely. This will reduce the number of individuals incorrectly matched to persons of interest and enable Border Force to identify more quickly individuals who are not to be confused with persons of interest. We expect these improvements to start having effect over the summer.