Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what direction they gave to police, if any, about the decision to ban tractors from entering Whitehall on 26 November.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental tool of civic expression and will not be curtailed by this Government. However, these rights are not absolute and must be balanced with the rights and freedoms of others.
The management of demonstrations are an operational matter for the police. It is not for Government to direct the police in how they should manage protest activity. The police must enforce the law without fear nor favour and assess each protest and the potential disruption it may cause on its own merits.
The Home Office does not hold confirmed data on the number of arrests made or vehicles seized.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) people were arrested, and (2) vehicles were seized, in the vicinity of Trafalgar Square on 26 November.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental tool of civic expression and will not be curtailed by this Government. However, these rights are not absolute and must be balanced with the rights and freedoms of others.
The management of demonstrations are an operational matter for the police. It is not for Government to direct the police in how they should manage protest activity. The police must enforce the law without fear nor favour and assess each protest and the potential disruption it may cause on its own merits.
The Home Office does not hold confirmed data on the number of arrests made or vehicles seized.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many migrants in 2024 were (1) returned from the Republic of Ireland to the UK, and (2) returned from the UK to the Republic of Ireland.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold data on returns to the UK.
Data on returns from the UK are published in the 'Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release'. Data on returns to the Republic of Ireland are published in table Ret_D02 of the Returns detailed datasets accompanying the release. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the end of September 2024. Data up to the end of December 2024 will be released in February 2025.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether workers and short-term travellers will be able to travel from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland using an electronic travel authorisation.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The ETA scheme applies to passengers visiting or transiting the UK, who do not currently need a visa for short stays and who do not have a valid UK immigration status prior to travelling.
British and Irish nationals do not require an ETA, and an exemption also exists for legal residents of Ireland entering the UK from Ireland.
Other individuals crossing the land border into Northern Ireland will need to continue to enter in accordance with the UK’s immigration framework, including the requirement to obtain an ETA when the scheme is fully rolled out.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Migration Advisory Committee Review of the Seasonal Worker visa, published on 16 July, what is the status of the future of the Seasonal Workers Scheme.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is carefully considering the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Seasonal Worker route and will announce a detailed response in due course.
On 21 October 2024, the Government underlined its commitment to the horticultural and poultry sectors by confirming that the quota of visas for Seasonal Workers would be 43,000 visas for the horticultural sector in 2025, with 2,000 visas for the poultry sector.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications the Government made to the Department of Justice and Equality of the government of the Republic of Ireland seeking extradition of persons within that state's jurisdiction for alleged criminal offences not related to acts of terrorism within the UK from 1969 to 1998.
Answered by Ben Wallace
This information is not held centrally, but the information that is available covers 1973 and 1999 eight people in total were extradited to the UK from Ireland for terrorism offences and the UK made 110 extradition requests to Ireland in relation to terrorist offences. No information is available on how many requests were made for alleged criminal offences not related to acts of terrorism.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications the Government made to the Department of Justice and Equality of the government of the Republic of Ireland seeking extradition of persons within that state's jurisdiction for alleged criminal offences related to acts of terrorism within the UK from 1969 to 1998.
Answered by Ben Wallace
This information is not held centrally, but the information that is available covers 1973 and 1999 eight people in total were extradited to the UK from Ireland for terrorism offences and the UK made 110 extradition requests to Ireland in relation to terrorist offences. No information is available on how many requests were made for alleged criminal offences not related to acts of terrorism.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what procedures are in place to ensure the timely resolution of immigration queries relating to people working on fishing boats.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Home Office does not break down immigration queries by sector.
However, UK Visas and Immigration’s (UKVI's) customer service teams have a service standard of answering 95% of written immigration enquiries within 20 working days.
Each customer service team, including for Members’ correspondence, has a Standard Operating Procedure in place to ensure that replies are handled in a timely manner, or that the customer is contacted if the service standard cannot be met. Performance is closely monitored at a local and senior level.
Customers may also use UKVI's Customer Contact Centre where they are sign posted to relevant information available on the gov.uk website.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department's definition of a skilled worker includes labourers on fishing boats.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The skills threshold for the admission of a non-EEA skilled worker under Tier 2 is that the job the worker is coming to do is skilled to National Qualifications Framework Level 6 (graduate level).
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many immigration queries have come from Northern Ireland in the last 12 months; and which industry sectors each of those queries related to.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.