Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arrived in England in each month in 2022.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). These statistics can be found at Asylum and resettlement datasets:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets
UASC application data is located within table ASY_D0.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been identified in adult asylum hotels run by the Home Office in the last year, following an initial incorrect assessment.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). These statistics can be found at Asylum and resettlement datasets:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets
UASC application data is located within table ASY_D0.
The Home Office does not hold data for the number of UASC identified in adult hotel accommodation in a reportable format and it would require a manual search of records which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what analysis they have done to ascertain whether the rate paid to councils to support care leavers who were formerly unaccompanied-asylum seeking children is sufficient to cover the costs of this support.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
All local authorities receive funding via the Local Government Finance Settlement or finance arrangements which apply to the Devolved Administrations. The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion or 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23. The majority of the funding is un-ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities and the services they provide.
Additionally, the Home Office provides a financial contribution to the costs incurred by local government supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) and former UASC care leavers.
Any local authority receiving a child transferred under the scheme receives a funding contribution of £114 or £143 per child per night, dependent on the number of children they accommodate.
In addition, the government increased the contribution for all former UASC care leavers from £240 per person per week to £270 per person per week. These changes follow a significant uplift in funding in June 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the policy of supporting a locally-driven response to demonstrations at abortion clinics; and whether they still consider that local authorities have sufficient powers to address any potential challenges arising in relation to such demonstrations.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is clear that it is unacceptable that patients seeking healthcare advice or staff working in healthcare facilities should feel intimidated or harassed. Since the 2018 review, the Government has continued to keep the matter of abortion-related protest outside clinics under review and continues to believe that a locally-driven response to demonstrations outside abortion clinics in England and Wales is proportionate.
The existing laws give the police and local authorities the powers they need to deal with harmful protests, and the Government expects the police and local authorities to use their existing powers appropriately.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK's cash network is not exploited by transnational organised crime groups.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The UK is internationally recognised as having some of the strongest controls worldwide for tackling money laundering (including through the use of cash) and bringing to justice those who seek to use or hide the proceeds of crime. These include Global Human Rights sanctions, Unexplained Wealth Orders, as well as our Economic Crime and Asset Recovery Action Plans.
The Home Office continues to work with our partners across Government and Law Enforcement to bring together the policy and operational response to Cash Based Money Laundering under one umbrella, with the overall objective to make the UK a harder place for criminals to launder cash in and through the UK and deter the use of criminal cash.
Economic crime knows no borders, and the actions that we take domestically need to be complemented at an international level. As noted in the Integrated Review and the new Atlantic Charter, we are working closely with the US to fight corruption and illicit finance. The UK-UAE Partnership to Tackle Illicit Financial Flows, recently announced by the Home Secretary, is another concrete example of joint international efforts to tackle the threat from dirty money and the serious and organised crime that it enables.
We have capitalised on the UK's G7 Presidency to strengthen the global response to corruption and illicit finance to reduce the space to hide dirty money.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ban the flying of the Hamas flag in the UK following its widespread use in demonstrations in 2021.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The military wing of Hamas remains a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000 enabling firm action against those who openly support it, including in displaying logos and flags.
We are committed to ensuring the police have robust powers to respond to activities that spread hate and maintain order. We are strengthening powers to manage disruptive protest through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of fatherlessness on young men who are members of gangs.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
We recognise the impact that family structure can have on children and young people, with research showing that a lack of support from parents can be a risk factor related to involvement in serious violence. This is why we are committed to investing in programmes of work focussed on early intervention and targeted towards young people at risk.
In March of this year, the Home Office announced its £130.5 million investment in tackling serious violent crime, with £23 million being invested in new early intervention programmes to help stop young people being drawn into violence. This includes programmes which use significant moments in a young person’s life, such as when they enter police custody or Accident and Emergency, as opportunities for trained professionals to engage and divert young people away from crime and violence.
Over the three years from 2018-2021, we have also invested a total of £105.5 million, in multi-agency Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in the 18 areas most affected by serious violence, bringing together local partners to deliver an effective, joined up approach to tackling violent crime and its drivers.
We have also made clear that the Government is determined to crack down on the county line gangs, by funding specialist support for those affected by county lines exploitation, providing one-to-one support to under 25s and their families in the three largest county lines exporting force areas (London, West Midlands and Merseyside) to help them safely reduce and end their involvement.
In addition, we are funding Missing People’s SafeCall service which provides confidential, specialist advice and support to young people and their families/carers who are affected by county lines exploitation.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to maintain public order during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The police are tasked with the critical responsibility for maintaining public order and are operationally independent of Government. They will continue to engage, explain and encourage people to follow the rules during the pandemic, but will enforce where necessary.
The Home Office continues to work closely with the police and operational partners to ensure they have the powers, resources and guidance they need.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to extend the visas of health and care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government recognises the vital contribution overseas NHS, health and social care workers have and continue to make in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier in the year we offered free visa extensions for key, frontline health professionals whose visas were due to expire between 31 March 2020 and 1 October 2020.
On 20 November, we announced we will renew this offer for those eligible health professionals and their family dependants whose visas expire between 1 October 2020 until 31 March 2021.
More details of this announcement can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-more-health-workers-to-benefit-from-visa-extensions
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the UK’s asylum system.
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 to transform the broken asylum system and processes: the work will simplify, streamline and digitise processes, ensuring that asylum claimants are treated quickly, fairly and are supported, and that claims which do not qualify are rapidly identified and prepared for return.