Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that individuals who are arrested and questioned by the police have access to solicitors during the COVID-19 pandemic, and can access them in a way that conforms to social-distancing measures.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office are in regular contact with the National Police Chiefs' Counsel (NPCC) and other key stakeholders regarding custody related matters.
The NPCC have circulated guidance for all police forces in order for them to safely manage their custody suites with respect to their detainees, staff and visitors. The CPS has also published a temporary interview protocol which clearly sets out the situations where interviews should be prioritised and encourages solicitors to access interviews via video or telephone.
Police have guidance on the use of PPE and should make PPE available to essential visitors to the custody suite.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in using conducting asylum interviews and other procedures at Asylum Screening Units through remote means; and how many cases have been processed remotely.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We take the wellbeing of asylum seekers extremely seriously and we are adjusting processes and procedures to ensure asylum claims can be registered in a safe way that adheres to social distancing guidance – with in person contact and travel requirements for the asylum registration process being minimised.
Asylum in the UK should continue to be sought at the first available opportunity, however for those who have failed to claim on arrival, or whose circumstances have changed since arrival the Home Office has temporarily introduced additional locations to register claims. These are temporary arrangements which will be kept under review to align with HMG guidance.
An overview of key changes and messages are outlined below.
Following guidance from Public Health England, we have cancelled all face-to-face substantive asylum interviews. We are continuing to explore ways to conduct interviews over video link.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the Home Office's strategy for ensuring that the families of EU national offenders and EU nationals in the probation system are able to apply for settled or pre-settled status through the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office is working closely with the Ministry of Justice, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, the Devolved Administrations and relevant voluntary and community sector groups to ensure that the EU Settlement Scheme is accessible to EU national offenders and their family members eligible to apply for status under it.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the number of countries which are exempt from needing to obtain a Direct Airside Transit Visa.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The UK's visa system is a border and national security tool. The UK keeps its visa regimes, including those countries whose citizens are required to obtain a direct airside transit visa, under regular review.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the potential impact of reducing long-term visitor visa costs for those coming from emerging tourism markets.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office is currently offering, as a pilot, a two year validity multi entry visa for Chinese citizens applying for a UK visa in mainland China for a lower price. This pilot is ongoing and the Home Office is looking at whether and how the pilot can be incorporated into part of the UK’s future visa offer and links to the development of mobility partnerships and trade deals.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that children are treated first as victims rather than defendants where cases involve one of the offences exempt from statutory defence listed in Schedule 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government regards slavery, including trafficking, of children as a very serious offence. The Section 45 statutory defence was designed to strengthen the existing prosecutorial discretion, and public interest test against prosecuting suspects acting under duress. The purpose behind this was to also ensure that a child’s additional vulnerabilities are taken into account on a case by case basis. This legal principle is supported by extensive training the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the police are provided with to recognise indicators of duress. CPS guidance can be found via the link below:
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/human-trafficking-smuggling-and-slavery
Where children are found to be victims of modern slavery, their safety and welfare needs must be addressed as the priority. All local agencies (including local authorities, police and border force) also have statutory duties to safeguard children as part of their local responsibilities.
Furthermore, the Government is keen for Independent Child Trafficking Advocates to continue to support law enforcement agencies to identify trafficked children as victims rather than perpetrators and to ensure, where appropriate, that the Section 45 statutory defence is applied.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the findings in the report by Every Child Protected Against Trafficking and Missing People Still in Harm's Way: An update report on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK, published in December 2018, what plans they have to investigate the causes behind the rising number of child victims of trafficking going missing from care after referral to the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The updated report by Every Child Protected Against Trafficking and Missing People, Still in Harm's Way, does not show a rising proportion of child victims of trafficking going missing from care. The report recognises the improvements in the identification of child trafficking victims over the last two years.
The Government is committed to protecting all children who go missing and recognises the specific needs of trafficked children, which is why we have announced a range of actions to better protect child victims and keep them safe. The Government has committed to expanding Independent Child Trafficking Advocates to one third of all local authorities by April 2019. The Child Trafficking Protection Fund which, as well as providing victim support and recovery, aims to reduce vulnerability to exploitation by preventing trafficked children from going missing and potentially being retrafficked. In November 2017, the Department for Education published a Safeguarding Strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. The Strategy commissioned a further 1,000 training places for carers and sup-port workers to equip them with the skills they need to identify when a child is at risk of going missing and of potentially being trafficked onwards. The Refugee Council are delivering this training and will have delivered 1,000 places by the end of March 2019.
The Home Office is also working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) through the Home Office National Law Enforcement Data Programme (NLEDP) to deliver a National Register of Missing Persons (NRMP). This will enable real time information about police reported miss-ing persons incidents to be accessed by police forces across England and Wales. Over time the NRMP will build a national picture of historic missing persons incidents. This will assist officers when they are looking for, or encounter a missing person, particularly if that missing person is outside their home force area. We are currently working towards the NRMP to be in use operationally in 2020/2021.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 13 December 2018 (HL12284), why data are not published on the time taken for victims of child trafficking to receive positive conclusive grounds decisions from the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The responsibility for the collection and publication of National Referral Mechanism (NRM) data currently sits with the National Crime Agency (NCA). The NCA does not publish data about the time taken for victims of trafficking to receive positive conclusive grounds decisions, be they adults or children.
However, responsibility for NRM data will pass to the Home Office when the new Single Competent Authority for NRM decision making goes live in April 2019. We will then review what data we publish going forward.