Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that the government of Israel permitted funds to flow to the Hamas terrorist organisation from third party countries via Israel.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

It is not appropriate for the Government to comment on unverified reports. The UK continues to work closely with our partners to identify opportunities to disrupt Hamas financial networks, including cutting off access to funding being used to carry out atrocities. Counter Terrorist Financing remains one of the UK's priorities under the National Security objectives set out in the UK's National Security Strategy. This work is ongoing alongside UK efforts to reach a long-term political solution so that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average time taken to deport a non-UK citizen convicted of a serious criminal offence from the UK.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not regularly published.

The Home Office publishes a quarterly paper on statistics on foreign national offenders (FNOs) subject to deportation action, living in the community. These are published in the Immigration Enforcement Data, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration Enforcement data: Q2 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Home Office also publishes quarterly statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders (FNOs) by nationality and year. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The published statistics refer to all enforced returns of FNO’s which include deportations, as well as cases where an FNO has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many individuals convicted of serious criminal offences are awaiting deportation from the UK.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not regularly published.

The Home Office publishes a quarterly paper on statistics on foreign national offenders (FNOs) subject to deportation action, living in the community. These are published in the Immigration Enforcement Data, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration Enforcement data: Q2 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Home Office also publishes quarterly statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders (FNOs) by nationality and year. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The published statistics refer to all enforced returns of FNO’s which include deportations, as well as cases where an FNO has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of their arrangements with the government of France in preventing illegal crossings of asylum seekers in small boats via the English Channel.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

So far this year, the UK’s joint work with France has prevented over 20,000 of these dangerous and unnecessary crossing attempts of the Channel by migrants in small boats. The UK has been working with France over a number of years to stop these crossings, and we have provided funding to enable French Authorities to field more law enforcement officers than ever before against the criminal gangs who organise these crossings and who profit from the jeopardy into which they place others.

Around half of all crossing attempts are stopped, but we know that more is required. That is why we have set up the Border Security Command, to smash the gangs responsible for this trade. We have recently announced investment of up to £75 million into border security, which includes funding new technology to support specialist operations being run across Europe and beyond.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards tackling gangs of people smugglers facilitating English Channel crossings.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The overall mission of the Border Security Command (BSC) is to work with our domestic and international partners to tackle organised immigration crime, and wider border security threats. The small boat crisis, fuelled by dangerous criminal smuggler gangs, is undermining our security, and costing lives.

Martin Hewitt CBE QPM has now been appointed as Border Security Commander to lead the co-ordinated response to enhance our border protection. The Border Security Command will strengthen our global partnerships and will tackle the root of the problem by going after these dangerous criminals and bring them to justice.

The Home Secretary has also announced up to £75 million in new investment for the Border Security Command. This will deliver cutting edge new technology, extra officers and further covert capabilities across the border security system.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions have taken place in the past 10 years of individuals accused of smuggling migrants across the English Channel in small boats.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

We do not routinely publish the information you have requested, and we are unable to provide this information, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what financial support they have provided to Intertrade UK; on how many occasions it has met; what decisions it has taken; who was invited to attend such meetings; and who actually attended.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland confirmed the appointment of Baroness Foster as the chair of Intertrade UK on 19 September.

The Government will be providing further details on how the work of the group will be taken forward in due course.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have received a report from the Veterinary Medicines Working Group since its establishment; and if so, what discussions they have had with European Union representatives to resolve outstanding issues, with particular regard to the provision of veterinary vaccines for Northern Ireland.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

A commitment to produce a report on safeguarding veterinary medicines into NI was made by the Veterinary Medicines Working Group (VMWG) established under the previous government; the group was paused due to the election before the report could be published. The VMWG has since been reestablished to provide advice to the new UK Government on an ongoing basis but will no longer produce a final report. Maintaining availability of veterinary medicines to Northern Ireland after the end of 2025 is a priority and this Government will progress work on this issue as quickly as possible.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions of individuals accused of smuggling migrants across the English Channel in small boats have taken place in the past three years.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

From January 2022 to 23 October 2024 Home Office Immigration Enforcement convicted 188 individuals identified as small boat pilots and four individuals for their involvement in an organised crime gangs linked to small boat criminality.

Found: Triesman and Lord Wasserman 45 Proposal 20: Letter from Lord Boswell of Aynho 49 Proposal 21: Letter from Lord

Found: Email from Lord Hain, Lord Lexden, Lord Dodds, Lord Empey and Baroness O'Loan to Lord Gardiner of Kimble

Found: Letter from Lord Empey to Lord Gardiner of Kimble, Chair of Liaison Committee in relation to Northern