Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to section 80AA(1) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing Georgia from the list of safe states for the purposes of section 80A.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Section 80AA of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (as amended and inserted by section 59 of the Illegal Migration Act 2023) provides for a list of generally safe states for whom asylum and human rights claims would be declared inadmissible; Georgia was added to that list by regulations.
Our current assessment of the situation in Georgia is set out in the relevant Country Policy and Information Notes, which are available on the gov.uk website.
We will continue to monitor the situation, working closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Should we consider that Georgia – or any other designated state – no longer meets the relevant criteria, we would ask Parliament to make the necessary amendments to the list.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support LGBT people seeking asylum.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
All asylum and human rights claims admitted to the UK system, including those based on sexual orientation and gender identity, are considered in accordance with our obligations under the Refugee Convention and European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
With specific respect to LGBT+ asylum seekers, whilst they are registering their claim, the Home Office ensures that these claimants are signposted to relevant NGOs specialising in the support of LGBT+ individuals. This is done through an information leaflet given to all asylum claimants at the point of claim which includes sections on legal advice, additional help and assistance with links to relevant legal bodies and support organisations.
The Home Office remains committed to delivering an asylum system that is responsive to all forms of persecution including those based on sexuality or gender identity and which supports claimants in providing all information relevant to their claim to facilitate fair and sustainable asylum decisions.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Forced Marriage Unit plans to take steps to publish data on the number of cases of female genital mutilation it is supporting.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) supports British nationals (including dual nationals) overseas who are at risk of or who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).
The FMU’s published annual statistics, which provide information on the numbers of victims and potential victims (generally of forced marriage) for whom it has provided support, have since 2020 included figures on the numbers of victims and potential victims of FGM for whom support has been provided. The figures for 2021 showed that, out of the 337 victims and potential victims for whom support was provided, three were victims or potential victims of both forced marriage and FGM, and 18 were victims or potential victims solely of FGM. The statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics. Statistics for 2022 will be published in the coming months.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of her Department's response rate to enquiries from hon. Members.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Performance against target has been impacted by a significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan and more recently in Ukraine.
The Department continues to prioritise enquiries related to Ukraine and recognises it has not been able to meet service standard in other cases. Actions are being taken to clear backlogs and drive-up performance. MPs can escalate urgent and compassionate cases via the team at Portcullis House.
The Department continues to recruit additional resources and has recently been loaned staff from non-operational areas to assist in clearing the backlogs.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of enquiries from hon. Members to her Department received a response within 20 working days since 1 January 2022; and how many and what proportion of enquiries awaiting a response were received more than (i) 20, (ii) 40, (iii) 60 and (iv) 80 working days ago as of 20 June 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Performance against target has been impacted by a significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan and more recently in Ukraine.
The Department continues to prioritise enquiries related to Ukraine and recognises it has not been able to meet service standard in other cases. Actions have been taken to clear backlogs and drive-up performance. MPs can escalate urgent and compassionate cases via the team at Portcullis House.
The Department continues to recruit additional resources and has recently been loaned staff from non-operational areas to assist in clearing the backlogs.
Data about intake and performance in answering Hon. Members correspondence are published quarterly with the latest Quarter available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-q1-2022
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many callers spoke to an agent on the MPs' enquiry line in April 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
1967 callers spoke to an agent on the MP enquiry line in April 2022.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many calls made to the MPs' enquiry line had a waiting time of greater than (a) one hour, (b) two hours, (c) three hours and (d) four hours for a caller to speak to an agent in April 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
905 - We do not collect data in this format.
904 - Calls have been longer than we would wish, but we have brought in an additional 16 dedicated passport staff to support the MP hotline, reducing wait times significantly.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time to speak to an agent on the MPs' Enquiry Line was for each week in April 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
905 - We do not collect data in this format.
904 - Calls have been longer than we would wish, but we have brought in an additional 16 dedicated passport staff to support the MP hotline, reducing wait times significantly.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Ukraine community sponsorship visa system will be open for applications.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government’s Homes for Ukraine Scheme launched on Friday 18 March.
Potential applicants and sponsors should visit homesforukraine.campaign.gov.uk for further information.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of Ukraine Family Scheme Visas granted to date are for three years; and what proportion of those visas have been offered for shorter periods of time.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on the number of applications which have been granted under the newly launched Ukraine Family Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukraine-family-scheme-application-data