Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish a breakdown of crimes committed by nationality in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
As the Rt Hon Member is aware, the Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, on a quarterly basis, but Information on the nationality of offenders is not routinely collected and could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportion cost.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs on returning Syrians (a) seeking and (b) granted asylum if that country becomes safe.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office acted swiftly to pause decisions on Syrian asylum claims whilst we assess the current situation. We keep all country guidance relating to asylum claims under constant review so we can respond to emerging issues.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will increase the salary threshold for family visas.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
On 10th September the Home Secretary commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules. Conducting a review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system.
The MAC ran a call for evidence from 16 September 2024 to 11 December 2024 which will inform their report, and any further changes to the financial requirements across the Family routes will be informed by their recommendations.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of Foreign National Offenders challenged deportation in each of the last five years for which data is available; and how many and what proportion of those challenges were (a) successful and (b) based upon the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Right Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 26 November to Question UIN 14746.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of allowing Sri Lankans based on Diego Garcia to the UK on the number of people who will begin to attempt to reach the UK via Diego Garcia; and whether any of the 60 Tamil migrants recently arrived have made applications for family to join them.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Diego Garcia has never been a suitable long-term location for the migrants who have arrived there and this Government has worked hard to find a solution that protects both their welfare and the integrity of British territorial borders.
We have now closed down any risk of opening a new route, with any future arrivals to Diego Garcia to be relocated to St Helena until Mauritius takes responsibility for the island. Following this, we have temporarily relocated a small number of migrants, including children and their families, to the UK due to their acute welfare needs, and the lack of any suitable amenities on the island, including healthcare, to address those needs.
In line with normal practice, we will not comment further on those individual cases.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has identified alternative accommodation to enable a reduction in the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with thousands stuck in a backlog without their claims processed. We remain committed to reducing the costs of asylum accommodation, including ending the use of hotels over time, and we will set out further details of our progress towards those objectives in the normal way in due course.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 6.37 of the 5th Annual Report of the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, published on 28 November 2024, whether her Department is taking steps to implement the recommendation to introduce facial recognition for all arrivals at Western Jet Foil.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government published its response to the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s 5th Annual Report on 28 November 2024 here: Response to the 2022 annual report on the operation of the terrorism acts by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Government is committed to exploring how it can improve and accelerate processes for identifying individuals of potential security concern, including continuing to improve its facial recognition capabilities.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Oral Statement of 22 July 2024 on Border Security and Asylum, Official Report, columns 384-387, if she will publish a breakdown of the £700 million.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to my answer of 25th November to question UIN 15092.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2024 to Question 13777 on Police: Mental Health Services, if she will publish the updates received by her Department from police forces on implementation of the Right Care, Right Person model.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
I remain grateful for the Right Honourable Member’s continued commitment to the successful implementation of the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) approach and I will be happy to provide him with regular updates on its implementation when there is relevant progress to update.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national offenders (a) are currently in (i) prison and (ii) the community and (b) have been deported since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of foreign national offenders (FNOs) in prison in England and Wales is published quarterly in table 1_Q_9 of Offender Management Statistics, with the latest data (30 September 2024) available from: prison-population-30-Sept-2024.ods.
Any FNO convicted of a crime who receives a custodial sentence in the UK is referred to the Home Office for deportation consideration following sentencing. We are focussing resources on those cases currently serving custodial sentences and maximising removals directly from prison.
We will pursue deportation action against individuals living in the community rigorously, actively monitoring and managing cases through the legal process and negotiating barriers to removal.
Between 5 July and 28 October 2024, there were 1,520 enforced and voluntary returns of FNOs, this is an increase of 14% compared to 1,330 FNO returns in the same period of 2023. Further information can be found here: Returns from the UK between July and October 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Home Office publishes the quarterly statistics on the returns of FNOs by nationality and year. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The published statistics refer to enforced returns which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily.