Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2022 to Question 60996, whether a letter from the Chief Social Work Officer confirming the identity of an unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC), that they are travelling to a receiving local authority and that they need to travel by air would enable them to travel without an application reference card if they are accompanied by a member of staff from the receiving authority.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A decision on the documentation that an airline would accept on a domestic flight would need to be made by the airline themselves, not the Home Office. It is open to receiving local authorities themselves to arrange the transport and to accompany the child on their journey from/to their care placement.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has taken recent steps to help ensure that application registration cards are issued quickly to unaccompanied asylum seeking children who are travelling to Scottish island authorities to allow them to travel by air rather than by road and sea.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Work is ongoing to improve the speed at which ARC are issued for children transferring to local authority care placements, where it is considered necessary to facilitate air travel. We work closely with local authorities on the most suitable method of travel for an individual child.
Where an unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC) is temporarily accommodated in a hotel and not in the care of a local authority, the Home Office is able to arrange transport for the UASC to the local authority care placement. It is open to receiving local authorities themselves to arrange the transport and to accompany the child on their journey from the hotel to the care placement.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has plans to ensure that the public can feed into the work of the Scientific Advisory Committee's advice on ways of checking how old an asylum seeker is; and what the process is for submitting evidence to that committee.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is committed to drawing on a range of evidence and expertise in the formulation of policy. The Age Estimation Scientific Advisory Committee is already in discussions with a range of relevant experts and is reviewing a wide body of literature. Any relevant published, peer-reviewed literature may be sent to the Age Estimation Scientific Advisory Committee mailbox for consideration. Contact details for the Committee can be found on the Committee’s gov.uk webpage.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when non-EEA fishermen will be able to gain employment on fishing boats on the west coast of Scotland.
Answered by Kevin Foster
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 19790 on 27 February 2020.