Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Goodwill Excerpts

Monday 29th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Nokes]

The Government have been repeatedly clear that immigration policy remains a reserved matter. Four years ago the people of Scotland confirmed in a referendum that they wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom and we will deliver an immigration policy for every part of the UK.

[Mr Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) (Con)]

There are 115,000 people looking for work in Scotland. Does the Minister think it would be a good idea if the Scottish Government did more to help those people to acquire the skills they need to get into the workplace and build the Scottish economy, rather than just ship in more people from beyond our shores?

[Caroline Nokes]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. It is crucial that we work across the whole of government—through our modern industrial strategy, the Department for Education, local government and the devolved Administrations—to make sure that we provide the opportunities for young people across the whole economy so that they can find work.

Oral Answers to Questions

Robert Goodwill Excerpts

Monday 4th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Wallace]

Through both the Joint Fraud Taskforce and broader cyber-security meetings in the Home Office, we work with the industry to produce a common cyber aware campaign, to make sure that everyone is reading from the same hymn sheet and advice is consistent across government. We also work hand in hand with the National Cyber Security Centre to make sure that advice is given both to small businesses and the charitable sector, so that they are not made vulnerable. By investing £1.9 billion in the national cyber-capability programme, we can invest in the capability to see this off.

[Mr Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to the personnel at GCHQ Scarborough, which is known locally as “Wireless station”? Together with their colleagues in Cheltenham, they work day and night to keep us safe from cyber-attacks and cyber-crime.

[Mr Wallace]

The workforce at GCHQ do a tremendous job of keeping us safe from our enemies, and have done since all the way back to GCHQ’s history in Bletchley Park. I was delighted that some new GCHQ jobs were recently announced in my region, the north-west, which shows that it is not just a Cheltenham-based organisation, with sites in Yorkshire, Cornwall and now Manchester.

--- Later in debate ---

[Victoria Atkins]

May I record our thanks to Mr Hyland for the invaluable work that he did as the commissioner? The whole point of the role of the commissioner is that it is independent, so we very much look forward to filling the position with a similarly robust and independent person in due course.

[Mr Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Sajid Javid)]

Yesterday we marked a year since the appalling attack at London Bridge and Borough Market, and less than two weeks ago we remembered those lost at Manchester Arena. Those sobering occasions remind us that the first duty of the Government, and my highest priority as Home Secretary, is to protect the public. Therefore, I today launch the Government’s new counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, following the comprehensive review of our counter-terrorism approach announced by the Prime Minister a year ago. The strategy sets out how the Government will continue to tackle the serious and evolving threat from terrorism.

[Mr Goodwill]

Will my right hon. Friend reassure me that an increased ability for MI5 and other public bodies to share information will not only deliver a more effective and joined-up response to the fast-changing nature of potential terrorism, but will also come with the right safeguards to protect the use of that information?

[Sajid Javid]

I can give my right hon. Friend that assurance. One of the lessons learned from the 2017 attacks was that MI5 could share some of its information on a wider basis—not just with counter-terrorism police, but perhaps with elements of local government and neighbourhood police. That will happen in the pilots to which the Minister for Security and Economic Crime referred earlier. I assure my right hon. Friend that the information will be declassified and that there will be certain safeguards in place.

Draft Passport (Fees) Regulations 2018

Robert Goodwill Excerpts

Wednesday 28th February 2018 General Committees

[The Minister for Immigration (Caroline Nokes)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Passport (Fees) Regulations 2018.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship in this slightly chilly Committee Room, Ms McDonagh. The regulations would, for the first time, set passport fees under the primary charging powers in the Immigration Act 2016.

In 2017, Her Majesty’s Passport Office issued nearly 7 million passports worldwide. It continues to provide excellent customer service: over the past year, the average turnaround for the vast majority of passport applications was approximately seven days. Its excellent performance has resulted in high levels of customer satisfaction; in a recent customer satisfaction index survey by the Institute of Customer Service, HM Passport Office ranked once again as the best-performing public service organisation. It has improved its customer satisfaction index scores over each of the past five years and has now appeared for the first time among the top 50 high-scoring organisations in the survey.

[Mr Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) (Con)]

By way of evidence, I renewed my passport very recently indeed and it came back in five days. Under the new system, in which applicants can upload their photograph from an iPhone, the application took 10 minutes. What a fantastic service!

[Caroline Nokes]

I am delighted to hear that feedback from my hon. Friend, the former Immigration Minister.

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[Mr Goodwill]

I personally do not consider the cost of a passport to be exorbitant. It is a 10-year passport, so for less than £8 per year a person can have a red passport—in future, I hope they will have a blue passport with gold lettering.

I have used the online process, and it is very good, but it is not all online: people have to return their old passport in the post. Indeed, many people consider a passport so valuable a commodity that they return it by recorded delivery, with all the costs involved in that. The Passport Office will then clip off the corner and send it back. When I was in the Home Office, we looked at whether it was necessary for the person to send the passport back, only to have it sent back to them. I wonder if the Minister will consider whether it would be cheaper for the Passport Office, and for us applicants, if it was no longer necessary for the old passport to be sent in merely to have its corner cut off, given that all the information the Passport Office needs is now held electronically on its system.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alison Thewliss]

It may be possible for random constituents in his constituency to stroll into schools and go on to the computers, but that is not the case in Glasgow. There are many computers in Glasgow’s libraries, and they are very much used by the population, including those who are trying to apply for universal credit online. There are lots of pressures on library services, precisely because the Government are moving things online, while many people do not have the facilities to access them: they cannot afford broadband, if it is even available, or a computer, and unfortunately still do not have the digital skills to access them. It is unacceptable that the Government are making people in poorer communities pay a premium for something to which we should all have a right.

[Mr Goodwill]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Alison Thewliss]

I want to move on, if the hon. Gentleman does not mind. I am concerned: the Government talk about more modern processes and things becoming cheaper and more efficient, but that is not reflected in the fees, which are going up. If the service is becoming more efficient and cheaper to run, because things are going online, members of the public should see a decrease in their passport fees. It is ridiculous that they are actually seeing an increase; whether for an online application or not, the price continues to go up.

I asked the Library to prepare figures on this for me. It had some difficulty in finding the range of figures over time, but I have the passport application fees for 32-page passports for adults and children. In 2001, the fee was £30 for an adult and £16 for a child. That will go up to £75.50 for an adult and £49 for a child if the application is made online, or £85 for an adult and £58.50 per child by post.

The online change since 2001 is a 151.7% increase for an adult and a 206.3% increase for a child. That is absolutely unacceptable, particularly when we consider that child passports last for only five years. By the time a child reaches the age of 16, they could have had three different passports. That is an unacceptable burden on families, particularly at a time when all other prices are also going up and household incomes are being squeezed by Tory austerity every single day.

Could the Minister tell us about her full cost recovery plan for paper applications? That indicates to me that there will be a further increase next year. It is a significant cost for people, particularly if they do not drive and so do not have a driving licence, because the passport will be the only way of having validated and accessible identification. The hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, mentioned that that is becoming a requirement for many more people, to get a rental agreement or financial agreement, and in life. It will also be a requirement should Tory plans to ask for ID at voting stations go ahead. People will find themselves disenfranchised if they do not have the £85, £75.5 and £49.50 to pay those exorbitant fees. If the Government want to propose ID cards, they can do so, but doing this by the back door and charging people an absolute fortune for it is utterly unacceptable.

The Minister mentioned that, to deal with vulnerable groups who cannot use online resources, the Government will work to improve the accessibility of systems and support arrangements to help people to access services online and minimise the impact on protected groups. I would be very interested to know what consultation they have done with groups that are considered vulnerable. What have they done to engage with all those groups? Will they publish any of that consultation process? I have not seen any of that information out there. The draft regulations are coming through a Delegated Legislation Committee and will come into force at the end of March, and there is very little time for people to have any kind of say on this matter before then. I would be very concerned if vulnerable groups had not been consulted formally.

Draft Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2018

Robert Goodwill Excerpts

Monday 5th February 2018 General Committees

[Caroline Nokes]

That is completely separate issue from that which we are considering. We will introduce a programme that will allow EU citizens to apply for settled status at the end of this year. Those who already have permanent residency will not be charged an additional fee for settled status.

Two further changes included within the draft order will delete obsolete provisions for which no fee is currently set in regulations. The original 2016 order permits a fee to be set for the acceptance of applications at a place other than an office of the Home Office. That provision currently allows the Home Office to charge a premium fee when delivering an optional service to enrol biometrics at a place of convenience to service users. Under plans to modernise services offered, the draft order will allow for fees to be set at an hourly rate, rather than a fixed fee. That will provide flexibility and allow for the fee charged to be commensurate with the time taken to deliver such services. That change does not affect the Home Office’s basic services, such as for those who enrol their biometric information at a local post office.

Finally, the draft order will also update the power to charge for services offered on behalf of certain Commonwealth and British overseas territories, where such services may not be offered within consular premises.

To sum up, we seek to make a small number of changes to the 2016 order to maintain the framework for immigration and nationality fees. We do not seek to change the overarching charging framework, nor the maximum fee levels agreed by Parliament.

[Mr Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the draft order is part of the Government’s intention to move towards a border, immigration and citizenship system that is fully funded by those who use it, not subsidised by the taxpayer?

[Caroline Nokes]

Given that my hon. Friend is a former Immigration Minister, we should expect him to be completely right in that respect. Indeed, we seek to move to a position where the fees charged cover the costs of providing the border, immigration and citizenship service.

As I have said, we are not seeking to make changes to the overarching framework, nor to the maximum fee levels that were agreed by Parliament and set out in the 2016 order, other than in respect of the premium service fee, which I have already referred to. Individual fee levels to be charged over the course of the next year will be set by new regulations, which are due to be laid before Parliament in March 2018. I therefore invite the Committee to approve this amendment order.

--- Later in debate ---

[Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)]

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak in this debate. I echo many of the points that have just been made. We in the Scottish National party have concerns about the cost of immigration and the effectiveness of the immigration system.

I will highlight two particular points from my own constituency. At the end of July a woman who lives in the Gorbals applied via the premium service for a spousal visa for her husband, but the application was not approved until the end of September. The application was made so that her partner could be there for the birth of her child. Given that the response was deemed to be within the 12-week limit, she did not get a refund despite not having received any manner of premium service: the service did not meet her needs.

A couple in Pollokshields applied on 7 June via a six-week service for a spousal visa. The Home Office eventually got back to them on 1 October to let them know that their application had been refused. Not only was it not a premium service, but it did not have a good outcome and they received no recompense for the lack of a visa or premium service. By putting out the service to be delivered by an external commercial company, I am worried that whenever anyone makes a complaint about the likes of VFS Global the Home Office replies that timescales on its commercial partners’ websites are indicative, so there is no guarantee that applying for a premium service will deliver a premium service, and that is a matter of great concern.

I am also concerned about the suggested cost. The hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton sensibly pointed out that it could take more than several hours to process some of the applications, and it would be hugely stressful for someone sitting in the waiting room seeing the cost going up and up. It is already expensive.

[Mr Goodwill]

I am sure that the hon. Lady realises that the whole point of the premium service is that the immigration service goes to it. The individual would not be sitting in a waiting room, but would be visited in their hotel room or home. That is why the premium service is so attractive to certain VIPs, footballers or perhaps foreign royals who need it.

[Alison Thewliss]

It is, regardless, still a very expensive service, and I question whether the expense meets the cost of processing those visas. It would be good to get more information from the Government about exactly how much it costs to provide such a service. As I was about to say, I am concerned about something not mentioned in the documentation, namely the equality impact, including on women, who have lower earnings and may be in the UK waiting for a spouse to come over. They will have even fewer means at their disposal. The situation was hugely stressful for the constituent I have mentioned, who was pregnant and waiting for her husband to come over.

Will the Minister clarify the point about charging people for not collecting biometric residence permits? I want to probe further as to the scale of that problem. Exactly how many people do not collect them on time, or at all? What are the reasons for that? What investigation has the Home Office done of that apparent problem? There must be a problem, unless the Home Office just wants to gouge people further for money for immigration. That seems to be a pattern, judging by what comes through my office.

Finally, a further example of such gouging is charging £6.25 for a webchat facility or email. It would be good to know exactly the reason for that, and for the £2.50-a-minute phone cost. Will those costs be fixed or capped, or will there be continued rises? My point is that immigration is a very expensive business. The super premium service has not provided anything like super premium responses to the people who come to my office. They come to me chasing answers, which they have not been able to get despite paying considerable sums of money to go through the immigration process.

I should like to know a wee bit more about quality checking, and the controls that there will be over external companies once the service is put out to them. At the moment my constituents tell me that the service is not adequate or fit for purpose, and they are not getting anything like a super premium service.