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Written Question
Autism and Learning Disabilities: Finance
Monday 17th October 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that people with autism and learning disabilities are protected from financial fraud.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

We know that fraudsters will use any means they can, including through highly deceptive and sophisticated techniques, to trick people into handing over their hard-earned money. We recognise that for the most vulnerable this can be particularly stressful and damaging however, we are focused on stopping unscrupulous fraudsters in their tracks and supporting victims so they can recover and protect themselves going forward.

Raising awareness and safeguarding victims will form a key part of the Government’s forthcoming fraud strategy. We are already taking concrete steps to protect the most vulnerable victims:

  • We are working with industry to do more to protect victims from fraud. We have re-launched the Joint Fraud Taskforce (JFT) which brings together the public and private sectors to combat fraud and agreed voluntary sector charters with the banking, telecommunications and accountancy sectors that among other things have resulted in less scam messages reaching victims.
  • We continue to support the National Trading Standards on the roll out of call blocking devices to vulnerable people and the National Economic Crime Centre have recently provided further funding for the delivery of additional devices. These devices have helped to provide protection against nuisance and scam calls.

We have established the Victims of Fraud Working Group which works to bring together key stakeholders from law enforcement, victim support services and the private sector to create a forum to discuss the victim support landscape, share best practice, close vulnerabilities in the system and ensure that victims of fraud and cyber crime are consistently receiving the right level of support.


Written Question
Visas: Ukraine
Thursday 24th March 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make the Ukrainian Sponsorship Scheme visa application available in Ukrainian.

Answered by Kevin Foster

We intend to provide supporting guidance for the Ukrainian Sponsorship Scheme visa application in Ukrainian and Russian as soon as possible.


Written Question
Immigration: EU Nationals
Monday 21st February 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many EU nationals who have been in the UK since infancy had their applications for UK citizenship turned down due to having a period overseas for study or work in the preceding five years in the time periods of (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021.

Answered by Kevin Foster

There are no plans to exempt EU nationals from the statutory residence requirements for British citizenship, which apply to all applicants regardless of nationality. It is fair all applicants, irrespective of nationality, meet these same requirements to ensure citizenship is granted on a consistent basis.

A person should not normally be absent from the UK for more than 450 days during a 5 year residential period, and no more than 90 days in the final year. There is some discretion available to caseworkers over excess absences and this is normally exercised where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and the absence is as a result of compelling or compassionate reasons beyond the applicant’s control. Details of how discretion may be exercised is published in nationality guidance.

There are no figures available through our normal reporting mechanisms for the specific scenario requested. Transparency data on overall approval/refusal numbers for citizenship applications can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q3-2021


Written Question
Immigration: EU Nationals
Monday 21st February 2022

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to implement an exemption to the residency requirement for UK citizenship in regards to EU nationals who have been in the UK since infancy and have had a period overseas for study or work in the five years proceeding their application.

Answered by Kevin Foster

There are no plans to exempt EU nationals from the statutory residence requirements for British citizenship, which apply to all applicants regardless of nationality. It is fair all applicants, irrespective of nationality, meet these same requirements to ensure citizenship is granted on a consistent basis.

A person should not normally be absent from the UK for more than 450 days during a 5 year residential period, and no more than 90 days in the final year. There is some discretion available to caseworkers over excess absences and this is normally exercised where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and the absence is as a result of compelling or compassionate reasons beyond the applicant’s control. Details of how discretion may be exercised is published in nationality guidance.

There are no figures available through our normal reporting mechanisms for the specific scenario requested. Transparency data on overall approval/refusal numbers for citizenship applications can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visas-and-citizenship-data-q3-2021


Written Question
Au Pairs: EU Nationals
Monday 8th March 2021

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what explicit provision she plans to make in the UK visa system to allow young people to come to the UK from the EU to work as an au pair.

Answered by Kevin Foster

As has been the case since 2008, the UK’s points-based immigration system does not include a dedicated visa route for au pairs. We will not introduce one for similar reasons to why successive governments deciding not to reintroduce a route for non-EEA nationals.

Those who have general rights to work in the UK, such as those who arrive under our Youth Mobility Schemes (YMS), as dependants of those settled in the UK or those who have settled status, would be able to undertake such roles.

We remain committed to operating and expanding our YMS, yet each YMS is based on a reciprocal arrangement with another country to reflect them delivering an element of exchange, they are not a one-way route for recruiting overseas.


Written Question
Windrush Lessons Learned Review
Thursday 3rd December 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to implement the comprehensive improvement plan, published in September 2020 in response to the Windrush lessons learned review.

Answered by Priti Patel

I am committed to delivering lasting and meaningful change across the entire department to make sure that the Home Office better represents all the communities it serves, and to ensure that nothing like this happens again.

Work continues at pace to implement the comprehensive improvement plan and I will update Parliament on progress in the new year, ahead of Wendy Williams returning to assess our progress in September 2021.


Written Question
Asylum: Housing
Friday 23rd October 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she made of the (a) adequacy of the two temporary Ministry of Defence sites being used to accommodate asylum seekers and (b) the effect of ongoing Ministry of Defence work at those sites on the health and wellbeing of those people being accommodated; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office and Ministry of Defence conducted a scoping exercise which identified Napier Barracks and Penally Training Camp as both suitable and available for the temporary accommodation of asylum seekers.

The Home Office has since worked with its provider Clearsprings Ready Homes to put these sites into operation with accommodation provided to the required standards in accordance with the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts.

Napier Barracks and Penally Training Camp were handed over to the Home Office for use for up to twelve months and so there is no ongoing Ministry of Defence work at these sites.


Written Question
Asylum: Temporary Accommodation
Monday 19th October 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to ensure the welfare of asylum seekers and refugees being housed (a) in temporary hotel accommodation and (b) at temporary Ministry of Defence sites.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

We take the welfare of the asylum seekers we accommodate very seriously. We work closely with our service providers, local health teams and the voluntary sector to ensure that support is provided to vulnerable asylum seekers.

Service providers have welfare officers on hand at temporary accommodation sites and asylum seekers are encouraged to speak to them if they are concerned for their (or anybody else’s) welfare.

Anyone receiving asylum support can contact the Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility service, operated by Migrant Help 24 hours a day, 365 days a year if they need help, advice or guidance or are experiencing difficulties.


Written Question
Compulsorily Detained Psychiatric Patients: Children
Monday 7th September 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children were detained in police cells under the Mental Health Act 1983 (a) since 1 January 2020 and (b) in each of the last five years.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

This information is already publicly available.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2019


Written Question
Stop and Search: Metropolitan Police
Tuesday 28th July 2020

Asked by: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications of the Metropolitan police's wrongful stop and search of Bianca Williams and Ricardo Dos Santos for her policy nationwide on stop and search powers; and if she will make a statement.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The Metropolitan Police Service has voluntarily referred this incident to the Independent Office for Police Conduct which has confirmed they are investigating it. As this investigation is ongoing, it is inappropriate to comment further.