Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set a target date for British National (Overseas) passport holders to be able to use eGates at the UK border.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The introduction of eGates has been part of the Home Office’s wider approach to transforming our borders. Currently, there are over 270 eGates in place at 15 air and rail ports, open to British citizens and a range of other nationalities.
We are in the process of reviewing our approach to eGate eligibility policy and will announce our decision in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2024 to Question 23314 on Migrant Workers: Hospitality Industry, if he will make it his policy to (a) collect and (b) publish data on certificates of sponsorship for the hospitality industry.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office publishes data on Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) used in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on CoS used by industry are published in table ‘CoS_D01’ of the Work Sponsorship detailed dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates up to the end of December 2023.
A CoS is considered used when the visa applicant has made an application which has also received an outcome.
Hospitality is not a term used by UK Visas and Immigration when classifying job roles for immigration purposes and there are no plans to use it to gather or publish data on Certificates of Sponsorship.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the enforcement notice issued by the Information Commissioner's Office on 21 March 2024 on the privacy risks posed by the electronic monitoring of people arriving in the UK by unauthorised means.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) findings related to the Electronic Monitoring Expansion Pilot which operated between 14 June 2022 and 14 December 2023. That pilot has now ended.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were subject to electronic tagging as part of his Department's pilot programme between 15 June 2022 and 31 December 2023.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The information requested is not available from published statistics.
However, as set out in the Pilot Equality Impact Assessment (available at Equality impact assessment: GPS electronic monitoring expansion pilot - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)), 600 individuals were to be subject to Electronic Monitoring as part of immigration bail conditions.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make it his policy to exempt people who arrived in the UK before 1 January 2024 from the new earnings threshold for skilled worker visa applications.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Government position was originally set out on 8 December 2023. Updated details are available here: homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2024/02/01/reducing-net-migration-factsheet-december-2023/.
Those already in the Skilled Worker route before the Immigration Rules changes are exempt from the new median salary levels when they change sponsor, extend, or settle. We would, however, expect their pay to progress at the same rate as resident workers; therefore, they will be subject to the updated 25th percentiles using the latest pay data when they next make an application to change employment, extend their stay, or settle. This is in line with normal practice.
Anyone switching into the Skilled Worker category after 4 April will be subject to the new salary requirement. This includes those in the UK switching from other immigration routes.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many certificates of sponsorship were (a) applied for and (b) approved to the hospitality industry in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Home Office does not routinely publish data on this issue.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason people born after 1 January 1983 are required to provide a valid passport when giving notice of marriage.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Every person who gives notice to marry or to form a civil partnership in England and Wales must provide evidence of their given name, surname, date of birth, and nationality. A valid passport or another specified document can be used as evidence of nationality.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will set a target date for British National (Overseas) passport holders to be able to use eGates at the UK border.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Government regularly reviews eGate eligibility for all nationals arriving in the UK, including British National (Overseas) passport holders.
In the New Plan for Immigration, the Government set out our ambition to digitise the border. To deliver this we aim to increase the use of eGates at the border by those currently eligible and investigate options to extend eGate eligibility to those unable to use them. Any shorter-term changes need to be balanced against the impact these have on delivering the longer-term ambition.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the report entitled The Prevent duty and its chilling effect on human rights published by Amnesty International in November 2023.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Shadow Minister (Home Office) (Security)
Prevent plays a vital role in tackling radicalisation, seeking to intervene early where somebody is at risk of becoming a terrorist or supporting terrorism. Participation in Prevent does not result in a criminal record.
Sir William Shawcross carried out an Independent Review of Prevent, which was published on 8 February 2023. Government accepted all 34 recommendations.
We have now implemented 30 of the recommendations within one year of publication, and we are making rapid progress on delivering the remaining four.
Prevent is entirely compatible with human rights. It is a key part of the UK’s Counter Terrorism Strategy, and it is right that we continue to keep the public safe.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to make Statutory Declaration of Acknowledgement of Parentage forms easily available to parents.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The forms are available online at www.gov.uk
Statutory declaration of acknowledgement of parentage form - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The forms are also available in paper form from any register office in England and Wales.