Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to respond to the email of 9 January 2024 from the hon. Member for Sefton Central on an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain, case reference: BE8124.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office works to a service standard of replying to Members’ correspondence within 20 working days. The MP Account Management team expects to reply to the Hon. Member by the target date of 6 February.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an estimate of the economic cost of metal theft to the UK economy.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Scrap Metal Dealers Act (2013) was introduced to reduce metal theft by strengthening regulation of the scrap metal industry.
The most recent assessment of the cost of metal theft was at the time of the 2013 Act’s enactment with an estimated cost of £228 million in England and Wales.
Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the number of visits that were carried out by local authority licensing officers to licensed scrap metal dealers in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not compile data on the number of visits carried out by local authority licensing officers to licensed scrap metal dealers.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to Question 138024 tabled by the hon. Member for Sefton Central on 10 March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Question 138024 was answered on 1 April 2022.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many child student visa applications has her department received from Russian nationals since 1st February 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The information requested is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for child student visa applications can be found here: Managed migration datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Information on how to use the tables in Managed migration datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of adding entry level social care staff to the shortage occupation list.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Senior care workers were added to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) in April 2021, joining other key health and care occupations such as nurses, occupational therapists and social workers. Yet we do not believe it would be appropriate to create an immigration route which gives social care employers an opportunity to recruit at or near the minimum wage, with no work based training requirements, as an alternative to offering the type of rewarding packages which will attract UK based workers.
In July, I commissioned the MAC to review the impact of ending free movement on the social care sector. The MAC have issued a call for evidence with stakeholders and we look forward to receiving their report in April 2022.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) correspondence and (b) representations she has received from representatives of the social care sector on adding carers to the shortage occupation list.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office regularly receives correspondence and representations from a broad range of stakeholders from all sectors, including social care.
Senior care workers were added to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) in April 2021, joining other key health and care occupations such as nurses, occupational therapists and social workers., It is worth noting a role at RQF 3 level or above does not need to be on the SOL to qualify for recruitment via the Skilled Worker Visa.
In July, I commissioned the MAC to review the impact of ending free movement on the social care sector. The MAC have issued a call for evidence with stakeholders and we look forward to receiving their report in April 2022.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Newcastle University study on forced labour in the Malaysian medical glove industry, published on 1 July 2021.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to working with public and private sector organisations to address the risks of modern slavery in supply chains. It welcomes research on these issues and is carefully considering the findings from the Newcastle University study. The research itself was supported by the Modern Slavery Policy and Evidence Centre, a centre funded by the Government specifically to transform the evidence base underpinning our policy and operational response to modern slavery.
Government is harnessing its spending power to ensure exploitative businesses do not take a share of the £81 billion that central government spends on goods and services each year. On 26 March 2020, we became the first country to publish a Government Modern Slavery Statement setting out the steps we have taken to prevent modern slavery and incentivise responsible business conduct in our supply chains. We have launched the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool and directly worked with over 500 suppliers on implementing effective modern slavery due diligence. More than 1,800 organisations have completed the assessment since March 2019.
The Home Office also works across Government to develop best-practice to prevent modern slavery in public sector procurement. With support from DHSC and NHS Supply Chain, the Home Office commissioned the ethical trade consultancy, Impactt, to develop tailored guidance for buyers and suppliers of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on best practice to prevent modern slavery in supply chains. As part of this project, Impactt delivered training workshops with PPE manufacturers and resellers to support them in implementing the guidance. In addition, the Government has recently launched e-learning to support public sector commercial staff to better identify and mitigate modern slavery risks in contracts.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many allegations of modern slavery in supply chains she has received in respect of the supply of personal protective equipment during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We do not hold data on the number of allegations made about modern slavery in the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), but the prevalence of modern slavery and complexity of global supply chains means that it is highly unlikely that any sector or company is immune from these risks, including PPE suppliers.
Through the landmark ‘Transparency in Supply Chains’ provision in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the UK became the first country in the world to require businesses to report on the steps they have taken to tackle modern slavery in their operations and global supply chains.
The Home Office works across Government to develop best-practice to prevent modern slavery in public procurement. We supported the Cabinet Office to produce internal guidance reminding departments of the key steps they should be taking to mitigate modern slavery risks in COVID-related procurements.
The Home Office, with support from DHSC and NHS Supply Chain, commissioned the ethical trade consultancy, Impactt, to develop tailored guidance for buyers and suppliers of PPE on best practice approaches to preventing modern slavery in supply chains. As part of this project, Impactt delivered training workshops with PPE manufacturers and resellers to support them implement the guidance.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of Iraqi translators who worked for the British Army in Iraq that are seeking asylum in the UK; and what steps she is taking to support their asylum claims.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We successfully resettled interpreters and their families from Iraq in recognition of the huge debt of gratitude we owed them for risking their lives alongside UK armed forces. This scheme included relocation to the UK or a financial payment for eligible members of staff.
Although this scheme has now closed, we still have a proud record of supporting those in danger of persecution and all asylum claims lodged in the UK are carefully considered on their individual merits including those claims made by Iraqi translators who worked for the British Army.
Additionally, Migrant Help provide independent advice and guidance to assist those considering seeking asylum and those who have claimed asylum to move through and understand the asylum process.
The Home Office is unable to state how many asylum applications have been made by Iraqi translators who worked for the British Army in Iraq as such data can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.