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Written Question
Homes for Ukraine Scheme
Friday 9th December 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how long on average it takes for applications to the Ukrainian Sponsorship Scheme to be processed.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The Home Office does not publish data on the average processing times for an application under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme.

Applications for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme are processed as quickly as possible whilst ensuring that the appropriate checks and safeguarding measures are in place.


Written Question
Migrant Workers: Fees and Charges
Tuesday 29th November 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the revenue was for the Immigration Skills Charge from NHS employers in (a) each financial year since 2017-18 and (b) the 2022-23 financial year as of 24 November 2022.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The Home Office reports total Immigration Skills Charge revenue in the Annual Report and Accounts. Whilst some employment data is captured, it is not captured or recorded in a way that allows for the specific categorisation of NHS employers.

Total Immigration Skills Charges is found in the links and pages referenced below:

2021-22 pages 208 and 216

Home_Office_ARA_21-22_Final_-_Gov.uk.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

2020-21 pages 191and 199

HO annual report and accounts 2020-21 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

2019-20 pages 187 and 195-196

Home Office annual report and accounts 2019 - 2020 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

2018-19 pages 168 and 175

Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Data relating to the current financial year will be made available on publication of the 2022-23 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts following closure of the financial year.


Written Question
Home Office: Email
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether any staff in her Department were dismissed for misuse of the email system in each of the last five years.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat

The Home Office disciplinary database has several broad categories to group cases for identification and management information purposes.

However, the categories are not sufficiently detailed to identify particular elements of a case. Therefore, this information can only be supplied by disproportionate effort.


Written Question
Motor Vehicles: Noise
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been (a) prosecuted and (b) fined for excessive vehicle noise on public roads in each of the last three years.

Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary

The Home Office collects and publishes information annually on the number of Fixed Penalty Notices issued and other outcomes for motoring offences, including for the specific noise offence classification 822. This information is published as part of the Home Office’s annual ‘Other PACE Powers’ bulletin and can be found in Table FPN_03 of the Fixed Penalty Notices data tables.

It should be noted that offence 822 does not cover all offences related to excessive vehicle noise and the data does not specify whether the incident occurred on a public road.

The next release of this bulletin is scheduled for Thursday 17th November, and will contain data for the calendar year 2021.

The Home Office does not collect information on the number of prosecutions for excessive vehicle noise on public roads. The Ministry of Justice publishes data in its Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly publication on prosecutions and convictions for motoring offences.


Written Question
Home Office: Email
Thursday 3rd November 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff employed by her Department were dismissed for misuse of the email system in each of the last five years.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat

The Home Office disciplinary database has several broad categories to group cases for identification and management information purposes.

However, the categories are not sufficiently detailed to identify particular elements of a case.

Therefore, this information can only be supplied by disproportionate effort.


Written Question
Home Office: Email
Thursday 3rd November 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff employed by her Department have been reinstated following dismissal for misuse of the email system in each of the last five years.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat

The Home Office disciplinary database has several broad categories to group cases for identification and management information purposes.

However, the categories are not sufficiently detailed to identify particular elements of a case. Therefore, this information can only be supplied by disproportionate effort.


Written Question
Emergency Services Network: Orkney
Wednesday 21st September 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of when the Change Request to the Emergency Services Network necessary to activate 4G masts in Rackwick and Stronsay in Orkney as part of the Scottish 4G Infill Programme will be completed.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

The sites referred to on Orkney are EAS0171 Rackwick and EAS0543 Stronsay, they are planned to be activated by March 2023. Both sites are passive build complete with mains power delivered, awaiting transmission and active equipment installation.

They are part of the wider 17 Scottish Futures Trust sites (S4Gi Project sites) that the HO have prioritised with EE, our Transmission (TX) delivery partner. EE are actively working on confirming the TX solutions to the 17 S4Gi sites. The TX contract was awarded to EE in August 22 and have started their prework on providing a full activation plan to the Home Office.


Written Question
Home Office: Photography
Wednesday 7th September 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on photography (a) in 2019, (b) in 2020, (c) in 2021 and (d) to date in 2022.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

In 2020 there were two occasions external photographers were employed by communications directorate with a total cost of £695 (excluding VAT).

In 2022 £5,520 (excluding VAT) was spent on photography for a Home Office recruitment campaign.

Spend for photography as part of social media, marketing and internal communications is not recorded separately.


Written Question
Home Office: Travel
Monday 5th September 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on ministerial travel (a) in 2019, (b) in 2020, (c) in 2021 and (d) to date in 2022.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

We can report on how much the Home Office has spent on official business travel in total but identifying all Ministerial travel expenditure specifically can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Home Office publishes details of Ministerial overseas travel on a quarterly basis, in line with transparency requirements, and this is available until March 2022.

Home Office: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Home Office: Stationery
Monday 5th September 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on stationery (a) in 2019, (b) in 2020, (c) in 2021 and (d) to date in 2022.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

The Home Office does not publish the information sought to the level of granularity required. Identifying stationery spending specifically can only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, the Home Office does publish some cost information in relation to stationery and this is grouped together with publications and printing expenditure.

The Home Office records and publishes information on a financial year basis, April to March.

Refer to the links and pages below for the available published information that relates to spending on publications, stationery, and printing:

Page 171 of the 2021-22 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts

Home_Office_ARA_21-22_Final_-_Gov.uk.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Page 159 of the 2020-21 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts

HO annual report and accounts 2020-21 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Page 150 of the 2019-20 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts

Home Office annual report and accounts 2019 - 2020 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Page 135 of the 2018-19 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts

Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 (publishing.service.gov.uk)