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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 5^th 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.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether a Minister in her Department has chaired a meeting of the synthetic opioids taskforce; and how many times that taskforce has met since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

Ministers are prioritising the risk of synthetic opioids as part of the wider long-term drug strategy. The Synthetic Opioids Taskforce is chaired by the Director General of the Public Safety Group at the Home Office on behalf of the Minister. The Taskforce meets quarterly, including on 3 July and most recently on 10 October 2024. It will next meet in January 2025 and Ministers are regularly briefed by officials on the response.

Reducing drug harms has important benefits for the Government’s missions to deliver safer streets, improve health outcomes and break down barriers to opportunity, while supporting overall economic growth.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been arrested as a result of investigations by the Grooming Gangs Taskforce since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce (or ‘Grooming Gangs Taskforce’) provides practical, expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating complex, group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation, with a focus on grooming gangs. It supports force-led investigations rather than running its own investigations.

Data is collected and reported quarterly. Arrest data is currently available from 34 out of the 44 forces that the Taskforce collects data from. In the most recent data collection – which is for Quarter 3 of 2024 (1 July – 30 September) - those 34 forces recorded 222 arrests for group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation offences. ‘Group-based’ offending in this context includes any offence with two or more perpetrators. This will include – but is not limited to – ‘grooming gang’ type offending; other ‘group-based’ offending includes intra-familial and peer-on-peer abuse, for example.