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Written Question
Asylum: Children
Friday 28th October 2022

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.


Written Question
Asylum: Children
Monday 17th October 2022

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.


Written Question
Asylum: Age
Tuesday 22nd March 2022

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.


Written Question
Migrant Workers: Fisheries
Wednesday 4th March 2020

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.


Written Question
Migrant Workers: Fisheries
Thursday 27th February 2020

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, what plans she has to enable non-EEA fishermen to gain employment on fishing boats on the west of Scotland.

Answered by Kevin Foster

From 1 January 2021, we will introduce the UK’s points-based system.

The future points-based immigration system will prioritise attracting the high-skilled workers we need to contribute to our economy, our communities and our public services.


Written Question
Asylum: Families
Friday 17th January 2020

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, how many decisions were made on applications for family reunification with a beneficiary of international protection in 2019; and how many of those applications were (a) accepted and (b) rejected.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Home Office publishes data on Family Reunion in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

Data on grants of Family Reunion visas by nationality are published in table Fam_D01 of the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets. Data on applications and outcomes of Family Reunion visas by nationality are included in the ‘Family: other’ visa subgroup in tables Vis_D01 and Vis_D02 of the https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/managed-migration-datasets#entry-clearance-visas-granted-outside-the-uk

Although ‘family reunion’ visas are not separately available, the vast majority of ‘Family: other’ visas are family reunion.

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 2019. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the asylum summary tables and entry clearance summary tables. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on asylum and entry clearance visas.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’. https://www.gov.uk/search/research-and-statistics?keywords=immigration&content_store_document_type=upcoming_statistics&organisations%5B%5D=home-office&order=relevance


Written Question
Asylum: Families
Friday 17th January 2020

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, how many applications for family reunification with a beneficiary of international protection were received by the UK in 2019, by nationality.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The Home Office publishes data on Family Reunion in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

Data on grants of Family Reunion visas by nationality are published in table Fam_D01 of the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets. Data on applications and outcomes of Family Reunion visas by nationality are included in the ‘Family: other’ visa subgroup in tables Vis_D01 and Vis_D02 of the https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/managed-migration-datasets#entry-clearance-visas-granted-outside-the-uk

Although ‘family reunion’ visas are not separately available, the vast majority of ‘Family: other’ visas are family reunion.

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 2019. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the asylum summary tables and entry clearance summary tables. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on asylum and entry clearance visas.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’. https://www.gov.uk/search/research-and-statistics?keywords=immigration&content_store_document_type=upcoming_statistics&organisations%5B%5D=home-office&order=relevance


Written Question
Asylum: Families
Tuesday 14th January 2020

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, how many travel documents were issued to beneficiaries of international protection by the UK in 2019.

Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

The Home Office publishes data on the number of travel documents issued to those people who are not British and cannot use or get a passport.

Information correct to August 2019 can be accessed via: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-august-2019

Table TD01. Information regarding eligibility for travel documents can be viewed at https://www.gov.uk/apply-home-office-travel-document.


Written Question
Migrant Workers: Health Services
Thursday 28th March 2019

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, what steps he is taking to ensure the recruitment of NHS and care workers from (a) EU and (b) non-EU countries to meet levels of demand after the UK leaves the EU.

Answered by Caroline Nokes

In December 2018, the Government set out its proposals in “the UK’s future Skills-based Immigration System” White Paper. The White Paper proposals include a new route for skilled workers which will be open to anyone at RQF level 3 and above, irrespective of where they are applying from. This route will not be capped allowing all of those who meet our requirements to come to the UK.


The White Paper also includes a transitional route for temporary workers which will be open to anyone from qualifying countries, wishing to fill positions at any skill level, for up to 12 months. We do not intend to impose a cap on the number of people wishing to use the route.


Written Question
Migrant Workers: Nurses
Thursday 28th March 2019

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 he plans to (a) retain and (b) extend to EEA citizens the Tier 2 visa salary exemption for nurses after the UK leaves the EU.

Answered by Caroline Nokes

We have been clear that we want all EU nationals, including those working in the NHS and the care sector, to stay in the UK after we leave the EU.

In their report, EEA migration in the UK, the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recommended maintaining the existing system of salary thresholds.

The Government has been clear that we will undertake an extensive programme of engagement with a wide range of stakeholders across the UK, including with the private, public and voluntary sector and local government, as well as industry representatives and individual businesses before taking a final decision on the level of salary thresholds.