Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to remove the requirement for people with Settled Status to hold Comprehensive Sickness Insurance when applying for British citizenship.
Answered by Kevin Foster
To meet the statutory requirements for naturalisation, a person of any nationality must have been in the UK lawfully during the residential qualifying period.
EEA Regulations set out the requirements which EEA nationals needed to follow if they wished to reside here lawfully on the basis of free movement. In the case of students or the self-sufficient, but not those who were working here, the possession of comprehensive sickness insurance has always been a requirement. This position has not changed since the UK left the European Union
The British Nationality Act allows us to exercise discretion over this requirement in the special circumstances of any particular case.
There are no current plans to amend legislation in this respect given they reflect EEA rules on Freedom of Movement.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to issue revised guidance on the resumption of in-person eligibility meetings for civil partnerships; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of facilitating those meetings through the use of video-conferencing.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The local registration service has been advised attesting civil partnership notices can recommence where these can be safely delivered in line with public health and local authority guidelines.
In accordance with legislation, meetings to complete the legal preliminaries of giving notice for a civil partnership must be conducted in the presence of the relevant authorised person.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to phase out the use of EEA national identity cards as a valid form of identification at the UK border.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The documents that EEA and Swiss nationals need to travel to the UK will not change until at least 2021.
We will announce further details of our plans to phase out the use of EEA national identity cards in due course.
However, EU Settlement Scheme status holders and others who are protected by the Withdrawal Agreement and equivalent agreements with the EFTA states will continue to be able to use national identity cards for travel to the UK until at least December 2025, in accordance with the terms of those agreements. Thereafter, they will continue to be able to travel here on their national identity card, provided it meets International Civil Aviation Organisation standards.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of climate change on the work of her Department; and what steps she is taking in response to that effect.
Answered by James Brokenshire
My Department recognises the importance of climate change with regard to policy development. We are keeping the effects of climate change on Home Office business under consideration. We have also been mindful of the Greening Government Commitments.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the ability of fire authorities to respond to fires in (a) electric and (b) hydrogen vehicles.
Answered by James Brokenshire
It is the responsibility of each fire and rescue authority to determine their operational response based on its analysis of risk and local circumstances, and drawing on national operational guidance provided by the National Fire Chiefs Council.