Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Afghans who have been granted asylum in the UK have subsequently returned to Afghanistan for a holiday or to visit relatives.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government does not publish information on how many Afghans who have been granted asylum in the UK have subsequently returned to Afghanistan for a holiday or to visit relatives.
Where an individual returns to their country of origin, this will usually indicate voluntary re-availment and may lead to revocation of refugee status under paragraph 339A(i)-(vi) or humanitarian protection under paragraph 339GA of the Immigration Rules. Cases are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of teaching at police training colleges, in particular in regard to teaching about hate speech and free speech.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there are consistent, high standards in police training and leadership to help maintain public trust and confidence. That is why the Home Office continues to fund the College of Policing to deliver support to forces and improvements to leadership and training standards through the National Police Leadership Centre.
The College of Policing sets national guidance and standards for policing in England and Wales, which includes publishing Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on hate crime. This APP provides guidance on how police should respond to hate crimes and promotes a proportionate and consistent approach that upholds the rights of victims and protects free speech.
While the College sets the overall framework, individual police forces are responsible for determining their own local delivery of training.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of risk that Islamism, as portrayed by the religionofpeace.com website, poses to the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
In the context relevant to the Home Office's responsibility for tackling terrorism, the terrorist threat we see today is more diverse and complex. The UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, outlines that in the UK the primary domestic terrorist threat comes from Islamist terrorism, with the remainder driven by Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what disciplinary action, if any, they plan to take against investigators in the Home Office following the successful appeal of “Maria” in the Upper Tribunal, whose case was covered by GB News in May.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Everyone working for the Home Office must go through the national security vetting process (NSV) to be granted security clearance. This includes permanent and temporary staff and contractors.
All Civil Servants must adhere to the Civil Service code and values when carrying out their responsibilities and duties, including any Staff Network activity. Any breaches of the Civil Service code are addressed through relevant HR policies and processes. Additionally, Civil Servants must follow the guidance on Diversity and Inclusion and Impartiality for Civil Servants.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what checks are made on the religious backgrounds of Home Office employees responsible for assessing asylum applications; and what percentage of them are Muslims.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Everyone working for the Home Office must go through the national security vetting process (NSV) to be granted security clearance. This includes permanent and temporary staff and contractors.
All Civil Servants must adhere to the Civil Service code and values when carrying out their responsibilities and duties, including any Staff Network activity. Any breaches of the Civil Service code are addressed through relevant HR policies and processes. Additionally, Civil Servants must follow the guidance on Diversity and Inclusion and Impartiality for Civil Servants.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is a Muslim network in the Home Office; and what assessment they have made of the influence of any such network on the Home Office’s policy and operations, and of any bias in favour of Muslims in asylum applications.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Everyone working for the Home Office must go through the national security vetting process (NSV) to be granted security clearance. This includes permanent and temporary staff and contractors.
All Civil Servants must adhere to the Civil Service code and values when carrying out their responsibilities and duties, including any Staff Network activity. Any breaches of the Civil Service code are addressed through relevant HR policies and processes. Additionally, Civil Servants must follow the guidance on Diversity and Inclusion and Impartiality for Civil Servants.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there is any process to ensure that asylum applications from converts to Christianity from Islam are not assessed by Muslim Home Office employees.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Everyone working for the Home Office must go through the national security vetting process (NSV) to be granted security clearance. This includes permanent and temporary staff and contractors.
All Civil Servants must adhere to the Civil Service code and values when carrying out their responsibilities and duties, including any Staff Network activity. Any breaches of the Civil Service code are addressed through relevant HR policies and processes. Additionally, Civil Servants must follow the guidance on Diversity and Inclusion and Impartiality for Civil Servants.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of any abuse of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in detaining journalists.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is rigorous and independent oversight of Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000, and strong and specific safeguards are in place to protect journalists.
Schedule 7 is subject to significant independent oversight by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation (IRTL), Jonathan Hall KC. The IRTL provides independent oversight, scrutiny, and transparency in the use of counter-terrorism legislation, including Schedule 7, by operational partners.
Any person, irrespective of their profession, can be subject to an examination under Schedule 7 if the statutory conditions set out in the primary legislation are met. The code of practice governing the use of Schedule 7 powers by counter-terrorism police is clear that the decision to select a person for examination must not be arbitrary. An individual subject to the power cannot be detained for more than six hours.
Schedule 7 also includes additional safeguards to protect journalists who have been selected for a Schedule 7 examination. For example, to ensure Article 10 ECHR compliance, the code of practice provides that protected material, including confidential journalistic material, cannot be examined by counter-terrorism police officers.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 22 January (HL3896), how and when they propose to “support victims and take action on delivering against the recommendations of the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse”; and how their proposed localised inquiries will compel witnesses to give evidence about girls trafficked across county boundaries.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Further to my previous response, the Government will lay out a clear timetable before Easter on how we will take forward the 20 recommendations from the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. We will also set up a new panel to ensure victims' and survivors' voices are prioritised in future policy making.
We have been clear that local authorities, who are responsible for delivering local services, are best placed to commission local inquiries, and we stand ready to support as we can. That is why the Home Secretary announced to Parliament on the 6 and 16 January 2025 a range of measures, including stronger national backing for local inquiries and funding provisions to help local councils set up their own reviews. The Home Office will develop a new effective framework for victim-centred, locally-led inquiries, and work with Oldham Council and four other pilot areas to implement it. Additionally, local councils which are yet to hold regional investigations where the group-based sexual offences have been more prevalent will be urged to conduct their own reviews to prevent offending happening again.
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Home Secretary's statement made on 16 January, which set out the actions the Government is taking forward to improve our response to, and understanding of, child sexual exploitation and abuse, including group-based abuse This includes improving the data available on the perpetration of these crimes and the Home Secretary has asked the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to expand the ethnicity data it collects and publishes - gathering data from the end of the investigation when a fuller picture is available.
The Home Secretary is also appointing Baroness Louise Casey to lead an audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, including what is known about the demographics of perpetrators and victims, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 22 January (HL3896), what assessment they have made of the appropriateness of identifying membership of grooming gangs by reference to Pakistani origin.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Further to my previous response, the Government will lay out a clear timetable before Easter on how we will take forward the 20 recommendations from the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. We will also set up a new panel to ensure victims' and survivors' voices are prioritised in future policy making.
We have been clear that local authorities, who are responsible for delivering local services, are best placed to commission local inquiries, and we stand ready to support as we can. That is why the Home Secretary announced to Parliament on the 6 and 16 January 2025 a range of measures, including stronger national backing for local inquiries and funding provisions to help local councils set up their own reviews. The Home Office will develop a new effective framework for victim-centred, locally-led inquiries, and work with Oldham Council and four other pilot areas to implement it. Additionally, local councils which are yet to hold regional investigations where the group-based sexual offences have been more prevalent will be urged to conduct their own reviews to prevent offending happening again.
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Home Secretary's statement made on 16 January, which set out the actions the Government is taking forward to improve our response to, and understanding of, child sexual exploitation and abuse, including group-based abuse This includes improving the data available on the perpetration of these crimes and the Home Secretary has asked the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to expand the ethnicity data it collects and publishes - gathering data from the end of the investigation when a fuller picture is available.
The Home Secretary is also appointing Baroness Louise Casey to lead an audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, including what is known about the demographics of perpetrators and victims, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.