Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of introducing greater flexibility on the use of diacritics beyond the guidelines set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The British passport continues to be issued in line with international standards.
British passports are not currently issued with a name using numbers, symbols or punctuation marks other than hyphens or apostrophes; or any diacritical marks such as accents.
We have no current plans to revisit this issue.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the ability for individuals granted Ukraine Family scheme visas under exceptional circumstances to fully access benefits and public services.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Applicants coming to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme, including those granted under exceptional circumstances, are given access to work, benefits and public services as laid down in Appendix Ukraine to the Immigration Rules, details of which can be found at:
Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine Scheme - Immigration Rules - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding applications for the EU Settlement scheme are from (a) Wales (b) rest of the United Kingdom.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data on the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) in the ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’. Data on the number of applications and concluded applications in total and for Wales to 30 June 2021 are published in ‘EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics, June 2021’, tables EUSS_MON and EUSS_05 respectively.
Summary statistics of total EUSS applications and concluded applications to 30 September 2021 are published on the ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’ web page.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she made of the number of outstanding applications to the EU Settlement scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data on the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) in the ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’. Data on the number of applications and concluded applications in total and for Wales to 30 June 2021 are published in ‘EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics, June 2021’, tables EUSS_MON and EUSS_05 respectively.
Summary statistics of total EUSS applications and concluded applications to 30 September 2021 are published on the ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’ web page.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including a Welsh-only option for people receiving registration documents from the General Register Office.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 requires all events to be registered in the registration district in which they take place. The forms which are used are prescribed in secondary legislation.
Where an event takes place in Wales, the information to be recorded in the registration can be provided and recorded in English only, or in both English and Welsh.
The General Register Office (GRO) has made no assessment of including a Welsh-only option for people receiving registration documents.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent review her Department has conducted of the format and provision of the Welsh language on registration documents provided by the General Register Office in Wales.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 requires all events to be registered in the registration district in which they take place. The forms which are used are prescribed in secondary legislation. Where an event takes place in Wales, the information to be recorded in the registration can be provided and recorded in English only, or in both English and Welsh.
The General Register Office (GRO) has not conducted a recent review of the format and provision of the Welsh language on registration documents.