Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to implement the £38,000 family visa salary threshold.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 22 May to Question 52912.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders are in (a) the community and (b) prison as of 31 March 2025, broken down by nationality.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) in prison and the number of Foreign National Offenders supervised by the Probation Service as part of its Offender Management Statistics Quarterly. For the purposes of these statistics offenders supervised in the community include those subject to a court order or post release supervision by the Probation Service.
The requested data can be found:
Prison population (based on the prison population as of 31 March 2025; latest available published data) can be found at Table 1_Q_12 in the attached link: prison-population-31-Mar-2025.ods.
Offenders supervised by the Probation Service (on 31 December 2024; latest available published data) can be found at Table 6_9_Caseload_Nationality in the attached link: probation-Oct-to-Dec-2024.ods. Probation data for the 31 March will not be available until 31 July when we publish data for 2025 Q1.
Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced. Where appropriate, the Ministry of Justice will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation. Between 5 July 2024 and 18 May 2025 more FNOs have been returned than in the same period 12 months prior under the previous Government. We are also investing £5 million in 82 new FNO Specialist roles in prisons to speed up the removal of prisoners who have no right to be in this country.
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 the rules laid in Parliament on 12 March 2025 on care workers, how many social care workers have (a) been removed from the UK and (b) had their visas cancelled as a result of their sponsor losing their licence since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
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 the rules laid in Parliament on 12 March 2025 regarding social care, how a social care provider can prove that they have tried to recruit domestically before seeking to sponsor new recruits from overseas.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office will publish guidance for sponsors in line with the new rules coming into effect on 9 April.
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 the judgement in case UI-2024-005295 issued in the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber on 13 January 2025, whether her Department has plans to appeal the judgement.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office does not routinely comment on individual cases or legal proceedings in which it is a participant.
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 accelerate deportations of (a) foreign national offenders and (b) illegal immigrants.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
We pledged to deliver the highest rate of removals since 2018 and this has been surpassed, with a surge in returns activity since the election leading to nearly 19,000 people with no right to be in the UK being removed in the first six months this government was in office.
That included 5,074 enforced returns of people with no legal right to remain in the UK, up 24% compared with the same period 12 months prior, and the removal of 2,925 foreign national offenders (FNOs) – a 21% increase on the same period 12 months prior (FNO returns include both enforced and voluntary returns).
As part of the above, bespoke charter flights have removed immigration offenders to countries around the world, including 4 of the biggest returns flights in the UK’s history, carrying more than 800 people in total.
This ramp-up reverses the decline in removals seen over the past 10 years and, as part of the government’s Plan for Change, is working to fix the foundations of a broken immigration system.
Further details on this government’s returns activity since 5 July can be found here: Returns from the UK since 5 July 2024 - GOV.UK
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 plans to proscribe drug cartels as terrorist organisations.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The criteria for proscribing an organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000, and the Governments approach to commenting on those decisions remain exactly the same as they were when the Rt Hon Member was a Home Office Minister.
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 implications for her policies of the Italian Government decision to use naval ships to transport migrants to Albania.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Italian navy has competence for the transfer of migrants rescued in international waters to the centres in Albania run by the Italian government.
As part of this Government’s expansion of international cooperation in the fight against Organised Immigration Crime, we constantly monitor the impact of the methods, techniques and technology that other partner nations and agencies are employing in that fight.
The UK government is monitoring the Italian government implementation of their deal with Albania as an innovative approach to manage migration flows.
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 use sanctions including visa penalties on countries that do not cooperate with the removal of their nationals.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Where cooperation with countries on returns falls below the levels expected, and where appropriate, we stand ready to use all levers available to us to encourage cooperation, including the power to impose visa penalties.
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 instruct the Southport public inquiry to make an assessment of the adequacy of public communications by the Government in the aftermath of those murders.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are moving swiftly to set up the inquiry.
We will consult the families and other interested parties on its scope to ensure all critical issues are addressed while remaining manageable and sensitive to the needs of those most affected.
We will announce further details about the inquiry in due course.