Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle pavement parking on a national level.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Local Authorities already have powers to restrict pavement parking. The Department consulted on additional measures to help councils across England tackle this problem.
The consultation asked specific questions around impairment and whether pavement parking had an impact on people leaving their homes.
We are currently working through the policy options and the possible legislative opportunities for delivering them and as soon as those matters are certain we will publish our formal response. The formal consultation response will be available to view at: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/managing-pavement-parking.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the transparency data entitled DCMS: Ministerial travel, 1 July to 30 September 2023, published on 15 December 2023, how much and what proportion of the £17,601.43 cost of the trip to Sydney between 17 August and 21 August 2023 was spent on air travel.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Secretary of State’s trip to Australia was to represent the UK Government at the FIFA Women's World Cup, supporting the Lionesses in the final, as well as undertaking a number of engagements to support the UK's culture sector.
The cost of her return flight from London to Sydney was £11,845.41.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to reduce processing times for decisions on the naturalisation of children.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Secretary of State’s Home Department publishes data on the processing of applications for British citizenship on the Gov.uk website. This includes performance against the service standard for completing applications. The most recent Migration Transparency Data published in November 2023 shows that 99.9% of straightforward applications were decided within service standard.
The link to the latest Migration Transparency Data can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q3-2023.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what his Department's average processing time for reaching a decision on a naturalisation application was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Secretary of State’s Home Department publishes data on the processing of applications for British citizenship on the Gov.uk website. This includes performance against the service standard for completing applications. The most recent Migration Transparency Data published in November 2023 shows that 99.98% of straightforward applications were decided within service standard.
The link to the latest Migration Transparency Data can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q3-2023.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the net migration measures announced in December 2023, whether changes to the minimum income thresholds will apply to people who are already on the 10 year route to settlement.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The ten year route to settlement as a spouse is for those who cannot meet the core requirements of the family rules in Appendix FM to the Immigration Rules, but who have exceptional circumstances.
Those on the ten year route to settlement are able to switch back to the five year route to shorten their route to settlement, if they believe they are able to meet all of the core requirements. In such circumstances, applicants would be required to meet the new level of the Minimum Income Requirement in place at the time they make their application.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of compensating women born in the 1950s affected by changes to state pension age legislation.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Ombudsman is considering this matter, he has not completed his final report and has yet to make any recommendations. When the report is complete the Government will carefully consider it.
It would not be appropriate to comment on the investigation and section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department’s publication, DWP’s ministerial overseas travel, July to September 2023, published on 14 December 2023, how much of the £4,295.27 spent on his visit to India from 18 to 23 July 2023 was spent on air travel.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The total spent on air travel during the Secretary of State’s visit to India was £5,366.44 (this includes internal flights in India).
The Department has noticed an administrative error in the publication of the Ministerial Overseas Travel, July to September 2023. The Department has taken immediate action to update the publication to show that the total cost of Secretary of State’s visit was £5,751.54.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the transparency data entitled DCMS: Ministerial travel, 1 July to 30 September 2023, published on 15 December 2023, how much and what proportion of the £8,046 cost of the trip to Sydney by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Sport, Gambling and Civil Society between 24 July and 2 August 2023 was spent on air travel.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Opposition Chief Whip (Commons)
I flew to Sydney to support the England team at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
As well as attending the England vs. Denmark match, I promoted the Government’s ongoing commitment to women and girls sport and physical activity. I championed the UK’s leading reputation in equality and human rights by attending a Gender Equality Symposium, and met with LGBT+ organisations, such as Pride in Sport.
I also promoted the UK's expertise in hosting major sporting events ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics by meeting with representatives from Brisbane 2032, alongside members of Brisbane’s City Council.
The cost of my return flight from Manchester to Sydney was £6,777.97. As part of my ministerial duties during my trip, I also travelled to Brisbane from Sydney. The cost of the return internal flight from Sydney to Brisbane was £336.80.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the transparency data entitled DCMS: Ministerial hospitality, 1 July to 30 September 2023, published on 15 December 2023, who gifted the tickets on 9 July 2023; and what the event was.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The tickets were gifted from Silverstone, and the event was the British Grand Prix.
This information was provided in the Secretary of State’s transparency return through the normal declaration process. However, due to a technical error it was not published on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many migrants have been processed at each asylum centre in each calendar month since September 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications and decisions is published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D02 of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to year ending September 2023. Data on the asylum centre that the migrant was processed at is not published.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.