Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to change the Common Travel Area arrangements with Ireland; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The UK Government is firmly committed to maintaining the Common Travel Area (CTA) arrangements, and the reciprocal rights and privileges it provides to British and Irish citizens. This is an objective shared by all CTA members.
There is a high level of cooperation between all CTA members to ensure we are taking all the necessary measures to protect and secure the CTA.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the recruitment process will be for members of the proposed National Age Assessment Board.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The National Age Assessment Board will predominantly consist of qualified social workers who, through being dedicated to the task of conducting age assessments and the sharing of expertise, will seek to achieve a consistent and accurate approach to the task of age assessment.
The board will have responsibility for conducting age assessments on age disputed persons, upon referral from a local authority, although local authorities will still retain the right to conduct age assessments themselves if they prefer to do so.
Recruitment plans for the Board are still in development and will be in line with Civil Service recruitment policy and processes. The development of the recruitment plans will include engagement with relevant partners. There is no intention to publish the names of members of staff of the NAAB.
A gov.uk webpage is being created for the Age Estimation Scientific Advisory Council and will contain a list of committee members.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the membership of the proposed National Age Assessment Board will be made public.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The National Age Assessment Board will predominantly consist of qualified social workers who, through being dedicated to the task of conducting age assessments and the sharing of expertise, will seek to achieve a consistent and accurate approach to the task of age assessment.
The board will have responsibility for conducting age assessments on age disputed persons, upon referral from a local authority, although local authorities will still retain the right to conduct age assessments themselves if they prefer to do so.
Recruitment plans for the Board are still in development and will be in line with Civil Service recruitment policy and processes. The development of the recruitment plans will include engagement with relevant partners. There is no intention to publish the names of members of staff of the NAAB.
A gov.uk webpage is being created for the Age Estimation Scientific Advisory Council and will contain a list of committee members.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the recruitment process will be for membership of the Scientific Advisory board for age assessments.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The National Age Assessment Board will predominantly consist of qualified social workers who, through being dedicated to the task of conducting age assessments and the sharing of expertise, will seek to achieve a consistent and accurate approach to the task of age assessment.
The board will have responsibility for conducting age assessments on age disputed persons, upon referral from a local authority, although local authorities will still retain the right to conduct age assessments themselves if they prefer to do so.
Recruitment plans for the Board are still in development and will be in line with Civil Service recruitment policy and processes. The development of the recruitment plans will include engagement with relevant partners. There is no intention to publish the names of members of staff of the NAAB.
A gov.uk webpage is being created for the Age Estimation Scientific Advisory Council and will contain a list of committee members.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the full membership of the Scientific Advisory Board for age assessments of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will be made public.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The National Age Assessment Board will predominantly consist of qualified social workers who, through being dedicated to the task of conducting age assessments and the sharing of expertise, will seek to achieve a consistent and accurate approach to the task of age assessment.
The board will have responsibility for conducting age assessments on age disputed persons, upon referral from a local authority, although local authorities will still retain the right to conduct age assessments themselves if they prefer to do so.
Recruitment plans for the Board are still in development and will be in line with Civil Service recruitment policy and processes. The development of the recruitment plans will include engagement with relevant partners. There is no intention to publish the names of members of staff of the NAAB.
A gov.uk webpage is being created for the Age Estimation Scientific Advisory Council and will contain a list of committee members.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to review version four of the Joint Interim Interview Protocol which applies to detainees in police custody.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Joint Interim Interview Protocol was developed by the CPS, NPCC, Law Society, Criminal Law Solicitor’s Association and the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association as a temporary requirement at the start of the pandemic to ensure the functioning of the criminal justice system was maintained. An exit strategy from the protocol is ongoing and will continue to be reviewed by its signatories. It is for the signatories to this operational protocol – the NPCC, CPS and solicitors’ organisations – to determine how this should progress.
Since the implementation of version 4 of the protocol on 4 October, ‘in person’ attendance for legal advice has been the default position, subject to some exemptions including inadequate police infection control measures, detainee or solicitor being COVID positive and other exceptional health and safety reasons. It is not believed to be practicable to remove the protocol in its entirety whilst there remains the possibility that detainees and/or solicitors may be COVID-positive.
The Home Office has been chairing a weekly operational meeting with custody partners (Independent Custody Visiting Association, National Appropriate Adult Network, NPCC, Police Federation, Law Society and others) since March 2020. This has allowed for effective communication, feedback and learning to be embedded and the operational impact of the interview protocol to be assessed on a continuing basis.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to support the appointment of a hate crime commissioner.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
There are currently no plans to appoint a hate crime commissioner.
The Law Commission is examining the pros and cons of such a role as part of their review of hate crime laws. We will consider the Law Commission’s recommendations and respond to their report when it is complete.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people who were entitled to receive asylum support that did not have a functioning Aspen card in each week since the Aspen card transition.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Our systems do not allow us to provide the data requested. However, we can confirm fully functioning Aspen cards, including translated instructions on how to activate them, were distributed to all service users via first class post prior to the transition date of 24 May. The vast majority of service users who held a previous Sodexo Aspen card on 24th May - the date the new service went live - have now activated their new PFS Aspen card.
Those who have issues or are unsure how they can activate their cards are able to contact the 24/7 Migrant Help helpline. Where service users do not have active cards, Emergency Cash Payments (ECP) are being requested (accommodation providers can facilitate these) to ensure service user’s critical needs are met.
Our latest available management information proposes the following approximations for the activation of cards amongst those who previously held a Sodexo card prior to 24 May:
[These figures have been taken from a live operational database and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard].
We continue to work with strategic delivery partners to ensure all cards are successfully received and activated with the appropriate service users being targeted for assistance.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many calls the Migrant Help service received about Aspen cards on each day from 21 May and 4 June 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We have been working with Migrant Help to reduce call volumes and monitor waiting times, which included increases of resources prior to and after the card service change.
Whilst we saw a significant increase in call volumes over the period 21st May until 4th June we are not able to categorise the nature of the calls at this point.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will undertake an urgent and full review of the ASPEN card contract transition; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The PrePaid Financial Services (PFS) solution is a well-established Mastercard pre-paid card which is used by organisations across the UK as well as abroad and has undergone over 5 months of rigorous testing to integrate with Home Office systems. A significant majority of service users have received their new Aspen card, have successfully activated it and are using it.
The relevant Home Office teams continue to proactively work with all appropriate delivery partners to provide resolutions for any issues faced since the new service went live on Monday 24th May 2021.
Cash payments were made available in emergencies. This was in place to happen well before the transition took place.