Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a means-tested visa fee and immigration health surcharge waiver in response to financial obstacles being put in the way of British Nationals (Overseas) seeking to leave Hong Kong and come to the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
There are no plans to introduce a fee waiver or immigration health surcharge waiver on the British Nationals (Overseas) (BN(O)) route.
The cost of the BN(O) visa has been set at a lower level than many other routes to the UK. In setting the fee, we have looked at analogous routes, the principles for determining fees set out in the Immigration Act 2014 and the overall design of the new immigration system.
Like others coming to the UK, applicants to this route should contribute towards the cost of the NHS services they will be relying on when in the UK.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the reported figures are on knife crime in each of the last five years in (a) Calderdale, (b) Kirklees, (c) Bradford, (d) Leeds and (e) Wakefield.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The information requested is not centrally held by the Home Office. The Home Office collects data on the number of knife offences recorded by the police forces in England and Wales, by police force area only. Data on these offences at the police force area level can be found in the Home Office Knife Crime Open Data Tables, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidences of online (a) hate crime, (b) anti-Semitism and (c) Islamophobia have resulted in convictions in the last (i) 12, (ii) 24 and (iii) 36 months.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Conviction data for hate crime does not differentiate between hate crimes committed online and offline.
The Government is committed to tackling all forms of hate crime and we published a new cross-Government hate crime action plan in July last year. This includes action against hate crimes committed both online and offline.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2017 to Question 60970, what data her Department holds on the number of prosecutions and convictions as a result of football-related arrests in connection with racist and indecent chanting.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of prosecutions and convictions as a result of football-related arrests in connection with racist and indecent chanting. Ministry of Justice are responsible for publishing statistics on prosecutions and convictions.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidents of racism in football were recorded or reported during 2016.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Home Office annually publishes statistics on football- related arrests and banning orders connected with regulated international and domestic football matches involving English and Welsh clubs and the national teams.
The 2015 to 2016 football season for football-related arrests covers the period 1 July 2015 to 10 July 2016. In this season there were 17 football-related arrests in connection with racist and indecent chanting.
The current football-related arrests and banning orders publication can be found at:
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many convictions there have been for offences relating to cases of immigration marriage fraud in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The table below gives the number of individuals who were successfully prosecuted by Home Office Immigration Enforcement for offences relating to immigration marriage fraud.
Year | Successfully prosecuted |
2014/15 | 121 |
2015/16 | 37 |
Prior to 2014, the records were not held centrally.
The decrease in the number of referrals to the Home Office can be aligned to the introduction of the Immigration Act 2014.
This legislation extends the notification period for those seeking to marry up to 70 days and provides time for the Home Office to investigate whether the marriage is sham. The effect of this is that those marriages deemed to be sham can be prevented from taking place.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the West Yorkshire police force has made on piloting and evaluating the use by police officers of body-worn cameras.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
We know that the majority of forces in England and Wales use Body Worn Video (BWV) to some extent. The deployment of BWV is an operational decision for chief officers. However, we are aware that West Yorkshire Police are operating a phased rollout of body worn video cameras to frontline officers following an initial pilot, with officers in the Bradford and Calderdale districts already equipped.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to raise awareness of financial scams targeting older people.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Government takes all types of fraud and financial scams extremely seriously. The Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, published in 2013, places a strong focus on protecting those most at risk. The Home Office has recently completed a research project in order to better understand who in the UK is at risk from fraud and cyber threats, what makes them vulnerable and how to most effectively reach them. This will enable the Home Office and partners to develop ways to better protect the public, for example providing targeted fraud prevention advice.
The Home Office also works with the City of London Police, which is the national lead force for fraud, to help all police forces to understand better who is vulnerable to fraud in their areas, and to work with local partners including the voluntary sector to help protect those vulnerable people from the threat from fraud.
Action Fraud is the central reporting point for fraud and is operated by the City of London Police. It assesses the vulnerability of victims based on the financial and health impact of the reported fraud, and provides this information to forces. This enables police forces to make targeted interventions with those most at risk. When a serious threat or a new type of fraud is identified, Action Fraud places an alert on its website with advice for individuals to protect themselves from becoming victims. Members of the public can sign up to receive these alerts by email.
The Home Office is also working closely with Financial Fraud Action UK and the British Bankers Association who have issued specific advice to consumers on telephone scams. This includes helping consumers know when they may be a target to these fraudsters, and advice on what information should never be shared, e.g. PIN number. In December last year Financial Fraud Action UK and the police announced a joint declaration to help consumers avoid becoming victims of financial fraud.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to amend Schedule 3 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 in order to ensure that there is no discrimination against care leavers who were taken into care as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Answered by James Brokenshire
There are no plans to amend the law. The existing legislation ensures that unaccompanied children who apply for asylum receive the same support and care from local authorities under the Children Act 1989 as any other child in need.
When a person reaches 18 years of age their position is different if their asylum claims have been finally refused and any appeals dismissed. In these cases, any further support may only be provided if is necessary to do so to prevent a breach of their human rights. This will depend on an assessment of the particular circumstances, but examples include cases where there is an unavoidable obstacle preventing their return to their own countries - for example if they are too sick to travel or need time to obtain a necessary travel document.