Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to withdraw from (1) the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and (2) the 1966 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees; and if they have any such plans, what assessment they have made of the need for parliament to have a role in such withdrawals.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Government does not have plans to withdraw from the Refugee Convention and its Protocol.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to withdraw from (1) the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and (2) the 1966 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees; and if they have any such plans, what assessment they have made of the need for replacement legislation.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Government does not have plans to withdraw from the Refugee Convention and its Protocol.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 24 October (HL2526), why they do not routinely publish any data on numbers of individuals that have overstayed their visa expiry in the UK; and whether they will publish the numbers for India in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes statistics relating to exit checks, which can be found on gov.uk, which provide statistics on the number/proportion of visas for which:
a) The individual was recorded as departing in time (before their leave expired)
b) The individual was recorded as departing late
c) The individual has no matched departure record
The statistics do not provide information on the number of overstayer due to known limitations in the data. For example, an individual travelling to or from the UK via the Common Travel Area will be included in the ‘no matched departure record’ category. Further information is provided in the published report and accompanying user guide on gov.uk.
The latest statistics are published in the Fifth report on statistics relating to exit checks and future plans for these statistics outlined in the recent publication on Developments in Exit Checks, also found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the increase in GDP per head resulting from a 50,000 increase in the number of work permits if, on average, 90 per cent of applicants continue to be accompanied by one dependant.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility provides forecasts of the overall impact on economic growth of government policy, including those resulting from immigration policy. The next forecast will be provided on the 17th of November alongside the Autumn Statement.
It is not appropriate to provide commentary on specific scenarios, but the government does consider relevant impacts in assessing potential changes to immigration policy.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the impact on the trend rate of economic growth of a 50,000 increase in the number of work permits issued per year.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility provides forecasts of the overall impact on economic growth of government policy, including those resulting from immigration policy. The next forecast will be provided on the 17th of November alongside the Autumn Statement.
It is not appropriate to provide commentary on specific scenarios, but the government does consider relevant impacts in assessing potential changes to immigration policy.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have a target for increasing the trend rate of economic growth; and if so, what it is.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The Government is committed to sustainable economic growth within a stable macro-economic environment. The Government will set out the approach to growth policy at the Autumn Statement on the 17th November.Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many entry clearance visas grants they provided to main applicants under the (1) Skilled Worker, and (2) Skilled Worker - Health & Care, routes for each quarter of the year up to June; and for each route, how many were issued for jobs at (a) RQF Level 6, (b) RQF Levels 3 to 5, and (c) RQF Level 3.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Applications granted to main applicants of the ‘Skilled Worker’ visa
Quarter | Grants |
2020 Q4 | 429 |
2021 Q1 | 4,553 |
2021 Q2 | 6,682 |
2021 Q3 | 11,762 |
2021 Q4 | 12,602 |
2022 Q1 | 12,701 |
2022 Q2 | 14,844 |
Total | 63,573 |
Applications granted to main applications of the ‘Skilled Worker – Health & Care’ visa
Quarter | Grants |
2020 Q4 | 689 |
2021 Q1 | 6,771 |
2021 Q2 | 5,815 |
2021 Q3 | 8,684 |
2021 Q4 | 10,530 |
2022 Q1 | 12,411 |
2022 Q2 | 15,646 |
Total | 60,546 |
There is no published data that links the entry clearance visas granted in these categories to the respective RQF classifications.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many work permits have been issued to Indian nationals in each of the past five years; and how many Indian nationals have overstayed their visas in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Home Office is committed to publishing data as part of the immigration statistics quarterly release. The transparency data provides outstanding applications by specific route and can be found featured in the ‘Migration Transparency Data’ on the GOV.UK website.
The immigration statistics Data Tables for Work can be found at Migration Statistics – Immigration Statistics, year ending June 2022, using the link ‘Why do people come to the UK? Work’ section 3 ‘Data Tables’. This table, at ‘Vis_03a’ tab, provides the numbers of work entry clearance visa cases applied for, issued, and refused for the year ending June 2022. There have been 117,446 applications for entry clearance for work purposes by Indian nationals from June 2021-June 2022, with 110,816 visas granted. Further details can be found on GOV.UK, including archived statistics.
The statistics relating to in-country work visa applications (extensions) is available on GOV.UK per annum, covering each year since the transparency data reporting began in 2010: however it is not broken down by nationality.
We do not routinely publish any data on numbers of individuals that have overstayed their visa expiry in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to section 16 of the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and the government of Rwanda for the provision of an asylum partnership arrangement, how many refugees from Rwanda will be resettled in the UK; and over what time period they will be resettled.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
A small number of the most vulnerable refugees in Rwanda will be resettled in the UK as part of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership.
More details on the resettlement of vulnerable refugees will be set out in due course. The partnership between the UK and Rwanda is now underway and is expected to last for at least five years.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with P&O Ferries about the (1) immigration status, and (2) right to work in the UK, of the replacement workers they are reportedly hiring; what assessment they have made of the right to work in the UK of these workers; and, of the workers of foreign nationality hired by P&O Ferries, what were the immigration routes by which they have been admitted to the UK.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
There are ongoing discussions between P&O Ferries and HM Government.
It is the Government’s policy that all migrants coming to work in UK territorial waters (i.e., 12 nautical miles), or on the UK landmass, need permission to work unless exemptions apply. Conversely, if they are working outside of UK territorial waters then permission to work is not required.
Seafarers who earn a living by working on a ship such as seamen or crew members do not need permission to work if they are in transit (under contract) to join a ship or are in transit as part of a crew, subject to entry requirements.