Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 16 December 2024 to Question 18968 on Asylum: Sri Lanka, what accommodation is available on St Helena to house migrants; what the maximum capacity is of this accommodation; how much funding will be provided for this accommodation; whether people with granted applications will remain on the island; whether his Department made an assessment of the views of local people; and if he will publish an Impact Assessment.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government of St Helena is responsible for determining what accommodation should be provided to any migrants transferred, and is currently exploring options. We understand that initially they plan to use an existing facility as temporary accommodation while more suitable longer-term housing is matched to the make-up of any migrant cohort. Funding requirements have not yet been determined.
Immigration is the responsibility of the St Helena Government, which will be responsible for processing any applications for protection or settlement. The Government of St Helena is also responsible for any local consultation and impact assessments. The UK Government continues to work in partnership with the Government of St Helena and as agreed in the MOU between both parties the UK will continue to provide the additional training, expertise and funding required to ensure the Government of St Helena is able to respond if any migrants do arrive on BIOT.
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 Answer of 16 December 2024 to Question 18968 on Asylum: Sri Lanka, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of relocating to St Helena asylum seekers who have travelled to the UK by small boat across the English Channel.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The specific purpose of the Memorandum of Understanding with St Helena was to deal with the risk of further migrants attempting to travel to the British Indian Ocean Territory, prior to the sovereignty agreement with Mauritius being formally completed. There are no plans to extend that agreement beyond its current remit.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many migrants entering the country illegally claimed to be children since 5 July 2024; how many and what proportion of those migrants were subsequently assessed to be (a) under and (b) over 18; and whether those migrants were assessed using scientific age assessments.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on detected irregular arrivals to the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Quarterly data on detected irregular arrivals by age group is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’. The latest data is up to the end of September 2024, with data up to December 2024 to be published on 27 February 2025.
The Home Office also publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on age disputes raised and resolved is published in table Asy_D05 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to year ending June 2024.
Accurately assessing an individual's age remains an incredibly complex and difficult task, and current methods and procedures for doing so are set out in detail in the Home Office's Assessing Age guidance, which is publicly available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/672e169e4f7608e424ffdab1/Assessing+age.pdf(opens in a new tab).
The effectiveness of these and other potential methods and procedures for age assessment are kept under regular review, and any future changes will be updated in the usual way. On the issue of scientific age assessments, I will write to the Rt Hon Member to address in more detail the question he has raised.
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 written to Chief Constables setting out her priorities for policing.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary spoke with all Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners within her first days of office, on 7th July. In that same week on 11th July, the Home Secretary attended meetings of both the NPCC and APCC to set out this Government’s Safer Streets mission and priorities for policing.
She discussed her priorities for policing with sector leaders at the National Policing Board on 23rd October and, on 19th November, set out more detail of her plans to all Chief Constables and PCCs at the National Police Chiefs Council and Association of Police Crime Commissioners Summit.
The Home Secretary wrote to all Chief Constables and Police Crime Commissioners (PCCs) on 5th December on the Government’s Plan for Change and the ambition to restore neighbourhood policing.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
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.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
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.
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.