Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) women and (b) girls have arrived in the UK via small boats in each year since 2018.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Home Office publishes statistics on small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release. Data on small boat arrivals by year, sex and age group is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of December 2023.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Future irregular migration publication release dates can be found on the research and statistics calendar.
No assessment has been made of the risk to woman and girls arriving in the UK via small boats to trafficking for sexual exploitation. However, all individuals arriving on small boats will be assessed on arrival, including assessments to identify vulnerability and safeguarding needs. Where there are indicators of modern slavery, the individual will be referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM aims to lift victims out of situations of exploitation, provide them with a short period of intensive support and specialist care, and put them in a position where they can begin to rebuild their lives with increased resilience against future exploitation. In the last two years alone almost 30,000 people have had access to the protections of the NRM.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have met with representatives of Pornhub since 2018.
Answered by Chris Philp
The Government is committed to tackling illegal online content and routinely engage in forums at which a range of external partners will be present, including technology companies, social media firms and other websites, to ensure that they are keeping their platforms and services safe.
Home Office officials have a long-standing provision of not disclosing the details of companies which have been engaged with on matters regarding Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, nor the specifics of discussions in the public domain.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by his Department as of 30 April 2024.
Answered by Chris Philp
This information is published monthly and can be accessed via the link below.
Workforce management information, 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Data for 30th April 2024 is currently being extracted and quality assured for publication in due course.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 23168 on Asylum: Rwanda, how many immigration removal centres make up the detention capacity of around 2200 people; and if he will list those centres.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Home Office currently operates seven immigration removal centres (IRCs) throughout the UK (six in England and one in Scotland); Harmondsworth and Colnbrook IRCs at Heathrow; Brook House and Tinsley House IRCs at Gatwick; Derwentside IRC in County Durham; Yarl’s Wood IRC in Bedfordshire and Dungavel House IRC in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
As of 24 April, the Home Office has the capacity to detain around 2,200 people in IRCs, including those liable for removal to Rwanda.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals seeking asylum have been detained pending deportation to Rwanda.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication.
Information about those detained who are liable to be removed to Rwanda is not available in our published data
Published data on detentions and returns is available at the following link Migration statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many detention spaces are reserved for individuals seeking asylum who are designated for deportation to Rwanda.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Home Office currently operates seven immigration removal centres (IRCs) throughout the UK (six in England and one in Scotland); Harmondsworth and Colnbrook IRCs at Heathrow; Brook House and Tinsley House IRCs at Gatwick; Derwentside IRC in County Durham; Yarl’s Wood IRC in Bedfordshire and Dungavel House IRC in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
As of 24 April, the Home Office has the capacity to detain around 2,200 people in IRCs, including those liable for removal to Rwanda.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish the operational agreement with the Irish government on the return of asylum seekers.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
In 2020, we agreed operational arrangements which allow for the return and readmission of asylum seekers where this is agreed by both participants. This is a non-legally binding arrangement relating to operational procedures, which we do not routinely publish.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many initial reception centres in Rwanda are ready to accommodate individuals deported under the UK-Rwanda treaty; and what the maximum number of people those centres can accommodate is.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The number of people who can be relocated under the arrangement is uncapped and the Government of Rwanda have identified a range of accommodation sites to support individuals under the MEDP.
These include reception accommodation in addition to the existing Hope Hostel, and a range of sites for longer term accommodation purposes.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of when the review of applications to the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy that were made by people who supported UK Special Forces in Afghanistan will be completed.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The reassessment began on 26 March 2024 and will take approximately twelve weeks to complete. Some complex cases might extend beyond the 12 weeks.
I will update the House once the review is completed, but my immediate priority is processing the cases as swiftly and diligently as possible and ensuring that the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme criteria is consistently applied to all applications being reassessed.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 April 2024 to Question 22532 on Home Office: Vivastreet, on what date discussions with adult service websites to explore a set of voluntary principles to counter exploitation on their sites began; and what her planned timescale is for finalising the voluntary principles.
Answered by Laura Farris
Discussions with adult services websites have been focused on measures to reduce harm on these sites, with the exploration of a set of voluntary principles to counter exploitation evolving from these discussions over time. Work to develop and finalise the principles is ongoing, and we expect to publish the principles in due course.