Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were deported from each constituent part of the UK in 2013 and 2014.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We are unable to provide a breakdown of the number of removals for each constituent part of the UK but the total number of removals is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2014-data-tables
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what counter-terrorism measures she has put in place to counter the threat of Islamic State.
Answered by James Brokenshire
This Government has put in place a range of counter-terrorism measures to
protect the public and British interests from all forms of terrorism, including
that posed by ISIL. Our priority is to dissuade people from travelling to
areas of conflict in the first place. To this end, our Prevent Strategy
includes work to identify and support individuals at risk of radicalisation.
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, which received Royal Assent last month,
added to existing powers by: disrupting the ability of people to travel abroad
to fight, and to return here; enhancing our ability to monitor and control the
actions of those in the UK that pose a threat; and combating the underlying
ideology that feeds, supports and sanctions terrorism.
The fight against Islamist extremist terrorism is not just one that we can wage
by the police and border controls. It needs every school, every university,
every college, every community to recognise they have a role to play. The
Prevent duty contained in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act requires
specified authorities to have due regard to the need to prevent people from
being drawn into terrorism.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people (a) applied and (b) successfully resettled in Northern Ireland under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme in 2013 and 2014.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme was launched in January 2014 to help particularly vulnerable Syrians who are displaced in the regions neighbouring Syria, for whom resettlement to the UK is the only option. In particular, the programme prioritises survivors of torture and violence, women and children at risk and those in need of medical care. We are working closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the region to identify the exceptional cases whose needs are so profound that they need to be resettled to a country like the UK.
Individuals do not apply but are referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Northern Ireland is not currently participating in the scheme.
143 people were relocated to the UK under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme between the first group of arrivals on 25 March 2014 and the end of December 2014. This is the latest publicly available figure, as numbers are released as part of the Home Office official statistics each quarter.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign criminals remain in the UK after being released from prison in the latest period for which figures are available; and how many were deported.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-enforcement-data-february-2015
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the devolved administrations on the scope of the inquiry into historical child sexual abuse commissioned by her Department.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The Independent Panel Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse will cover England and Wales. Child protection is a devolved matter so it is right for places outside England and Wales to conduct their own inquiries. Officials have already had
discussions with their counterparts in the devolved administrations to ensure all enquiries led by the devolved administrations feed into the Independent Inquiry and to ensure that no information falls through the gaps.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many EU students came to study in Northern Ireland in the last 12 months.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Statistics relating specifically to Northern Ireland are a matter for the devolved administration.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-EU students came to study in Northern Ireland in the last 12 months.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Statistics relating specifically to Northern Ireland are a matter for the devolved administration.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applicants for (a) indefinite leave to remain in the UK and (b) naturalisation as a British citizen have passed the Life in the UK test and have an intermediate level English Language speaking and listening qualification since the test was introduced.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Government strengthened the requirements for indefinite leave to remain and naturalisation as a British citizen in October 2013 to require adult applicants both to pass the Life in the UK test and to have an intermediate level speaking and listening qualification. There are some limited exceptions to this requirement, for example where applicants have a physical or mental condition which severely restricts their ability to learn English and it is possible for some applicants to demonstrate their level of English in a different way such as by being a national of an English speaking country or having a degree taught in English. In the period between October 2013 and September 2014, 107,565 applicants have
been granted indefinite leave and 149,357 have been naturalised as British citizens.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent representations she has received about the number of illegal immigrants entering the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Home Office regularly receives written questions and correspondence from Honourable Members and their constituents about this issue. Since 2010, we have clamped down on illegal immigration.
The Immigration Act 2014 is a landmark piece of legislation which builds on the Government’s ongoing reforms to our immigration system to ensure it works in our national interest.
The Act will have a major impact on the Home Office’s work to secure our borders, enforce our immigration laws and continue to attract the brightest and the best to the UK.
The Act puts the law firmly on the side of those who respect it, not those who break it.
Key measures from the Act which are now in force including the introduction of enhanced duties for registrars to report suspected sham marriages and civil partnerships; new powers to streamline the recovery of illegal working penalties; the ability to remove harmfulindividuals before their appeals are heard if there is no risk of serious irreversible harm.
The Act also Strengthens requirements for the courts to have regard to Parliament’s view of the public interest in immigration cases raising Article 8-making clear the right to a family life is not to be regarded as absolute and unqualified.
New powers to revoke the driving licences of known illegal immigrants are also included in the Act.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she met the Mayor of Calais during her visit to Westminster on 28 October 2014.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private
sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of these meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office.