Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that property managers of private or mixed tenure high-rise residential buildings are sufficiently competent to manage fire safety risk.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) places a range of legal duties on Responsible Persons (the person in control of a premises), chief among which are the need to undertake a fire risk assessment to identify any general fire safety precautions that need to be taken to ensure that the premises, and people within it, are safe from fire.
In order to help Responsible Persons discharge their duties we publish a range of guides that include an explanation of their legal duties, how to complete a fire risk assessment in specific types of premises including purpose-built blocks of flats and guidance on specific issues such as how to undertake checks on fire doors. Responsible Persons have a duty under Article 18 of the FSO to appoint a competent person to assist them in implementing any preventative and protective measures identified in the fire risk assessment and our guidance provides advice on when and how to do this.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will consider adopting a similar approach to visa and passport arrangements with Italy and Germany as they have with France.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
At the Leaders’ Summit in Paris on 10 March 2023, as part of an overall agreement on migration reached with France, the UK committed to ease the travel of school groups to the UK by making changes to documentary requirements for schoolchildren on organised trips from France. This agreement is specific to France.
We would consider negotiating similar arrangements with other countries if they approached us in the same context.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many complaints to Border Force are not answered within the service standard of 20 days.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The latest transparency data showing performance against service standards in relation to replies to customer complaints for UKVI, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force is available at the following: Customer service operations data: Q3 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what procedures Border Force has in place to learn lessons from incidents of unnecessary detention or of the loss of paper-work such that a complaint takes 11 months to process.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A Transformation Programme of work is currently underway to reduce the time taken to process incoming complaints within service level agreement. Part of the programme includes identifying and sharing lessons learned to improve the overall service at the border and monitor detention related complaints.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why no reason is given to inward travellers for being held for 6 hours; why they are offered no food or drink during such detention; and why no apology is offered when nothing untoward has been found in their travel to the UK.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A passenger remains liable to examination on arrival in the United Kingdom until all necessary enquiries have been concluded and a decision is made on their application for permission to enter or admission.
Anyone detained beyond two hours is detained in compliance with the relevant guidance and legislation (notably The Short Term Holding Facility Rules 2018). The detained person is informed of their bail rights and reasons for their detention, and this is explained in a language that they understand.
Temperature controlled food was temporarily withdrawn from BF managed facilities during 2023 whilst we implemented a new training and governance procedure to ensure we were complaint with current food standards. Throughout this period, we followed Government guidance, continuing to serve water, hot drinks and snacks.
We always look to minimise detention as far as possible; however, the power to detain must be retained in the interests of maintaining effective immigration control.
It would not be appropriate for Border Force to apologise for conducting legitimate border security checks.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Bar Council and Law Society about the potential use of UK lawyers in Rwanda to advise on asylum claims.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Following the signing of the new Treaty between the UK and Rwanda, we are continuing to work to strengthen this Partnership. We are working with the Government of Rwanda to see where any UK expertise or support would be beneficial. More details on this will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed treaty with Rwanda, announced on 15 November, will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny in accordance with the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Treaties the Government wishes to ratify are subject to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. We will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings have taken place of the Monitoring Committee set up under the (Rwandan) Migration and Economic Development Partnership; and whether its minutes will be published.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth - Shadow Minister (Home Office)
A full meeting of the Monitoring Committee is being planned and details on this will be set out in due course. As set out in the terms of reference, the Monitoring Committee will produce a summary report for publication once a year.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential benefits of making public health a licensing objective by amending the Licensing Act 2003.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Government has no plans to introduce Health as a Licensing Objective at this time.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Baroness Williams of Trafford to all peers on 2 March regarding the Nationality and Borders Bill and offshoring, whether any such arrangement with a third country would require a treaty.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Legislation in the Nationality and Borders Bill does not in itself enable overseas asylum processing; we need a deal with a likeminded partner for that. I will not tie the hands of our negotiators by commenting on the content nor form of a deal, this is a matter for the negotiating table.