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 estimate she has made of the waiting time for conclusive grounds to be established for victims of human trafficking and modern day slavery.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). These include the average time taken to make a Country Guidance Decision. The latest published NRM statistics can be found here: Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, Quarter 1 2021 – January to March - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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 efficiency of her Department's delivery partners in delivering Biometric Residency Permits.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) are delivered by FedEx, which took over the delivery contract from DX in February 2020, with the key performance indicator being to attempt to deliver 99% of BRPs within 48 hours of collection from the production facility.
FedEx took over the delivery contract from DX in February 2020, after a bedding in period formal reporting started in July 2020. Between 1 July 2020 and 31 March 2021 FedEx attempted to deliver 99.2% of BRPs within 48 hours. Of the deliveries attempted, 90.4% were successful.
We are working with FedEx to improve the number of BRPs successfully delivered by improving Management Information reporting, incident/investigation reporting and reconciliation, and customer service functions.
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 assessment she has made of the effect of covid-19 travel restrictions in respect of red list countries on a potential applicant's ability to apply for a EU Settlement Scheme family permit within the application window.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The EU Settlement Scheme family permit is open for eligible family members of a relevant sponsor to apply. Individuals in red list countries can apply in the normal way.
If their application is successful, they will not be prevented from travelling to the UK, as they have residence rights, but like all travellers to the UK must comply with the prevailing border health measures, including the managed quarantine service where relevant.
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 officials in her Department recognise Ahmadiyya marriage certificates which are not registered with the Pakistan Union Council for the purposes of EU Settlement Scheme family permit applications.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Ahmadiyya marriage certificates which for legitimate reasons are not registered with the Pakistan Union Council, but which have been accepted for official purposes by the Pakistani authorities, will be recognised as evidence of marriage in an EU Settlement Scheme family permit application.
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 UK will (a) become fully compliant with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence and (b) ratify that treaty.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The UK signed the Istanbul Convention in 2012, signalling its strong commitment to tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) and this Government remains committed to ratifying it as soon as possible.
The Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017 requires Ministers to publish annual reports on their progress towards being able to ratify the Convention. The most recent report was published on 22 October 2020 and can be found here: Ratification of the Council of Europe convention on combating violence against women and domestic violence - progress report 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The October 2020 report confirmed that the UK already complies with almost all of the Convention’s articles (and in a number of respects goes beyond them) and sets out the steps which the Government and the Devolved Administrations are taking, to comply with the outstanding articles as we progress toward ratification.
When we are satisfied that we are compliant with the Convention then we will, in line with section 1(3) of the Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017, make a statement to Parliament confirming that fact and outline when we would expect to ratify.
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 correspondence sent to the MP correspondence team is replied to within the 20 working day service standard for a comprehensive response.
Answered by James Brokenshire
71% of correspondence received in 2020, to the end of August, has been replied to within 20 working days. This includes replies to correspondence from hon. Members relating to immigration casework and operational matters provided by officials.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 September 2020 to Question 93656, for what reason she has not been able to update the House sooner on the Windrush Lessons Learned review’s findings.
Answered by Priti Patel
On 30 September, I published a Comprehensive Improvement Plan in response to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review.
This can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-lessons-learned-review-response-comprehensive-improvement-plan
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 discussions she (a) has had and (b) plans to have with organisations to contribute to the review of the compliant environment as recommended by the Windrush Lessons Learned Review.
Answered by Priti Patel
My officials are consulting external experts, community organisations and the very people the Home Office has failed in the past in an extensive programme of engagement to ensure officials understand the change that is needed and that the organisation at every level learns the lessons of what went wrong.
I have accepted the Windrush Lessons Learned review’s important findings and I will be updating the House in the coming weeks.
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 Government’s review on the restrictions on asylum seekers' rights to work, initiated in December 2018, will be concluded.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asylum seeker right to work is a complex issue and is under review; it is crucial we take the time to get this right. We are listening carefully to the arguments and considering the evidence put forward on the issue.
The findings of the review will be communicated once this work is completed.
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 provide safe and legal routes of entry to the UK for asylum seekers in order to prevent the risk of exploitation and the dangers of crossing the Channel by boat.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK is one of the world’s leading refugee resettlement states. We resettle more refugees than any other country in Europe and are in the top five countries worldwide. Since 2015, we have resettled more than 25,000 refugees. We can be proud as a country of our ambitious commitments and achievements.
The UK has a long and proud tradition of providing safe haven to those who genuinely need our protection, and we remain committed to providing protection to those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations.
Those who fear persecution should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach and not put their lives at risk by making unnecessary and dangerous journeys to the UK. Illegal migration from safe countries undermines our efforts to help those most in need - controlled resettlement via safe and legal routes is the best way to protect such people and disrupt the organised crime groups that exploit migrants and refugees.
While resettlement arrivals are currently suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will resume them as soon as conditions allow, and intend to meet our full commitment to those fleeing the Syrian conflict.