Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance his Department has issued on the provision of culturally appropriate oral and written professional translation when communicating with (a) applicants for asylum, (b) people in immigration detention, (c) people appealing application decisions and (d) people identified for deportation to Rwanda.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson

The Home Office aims to provide interpreter and translation services for refugees and asylum seekers at public expense whenever and wherever necessary. Interpreters are engaged by the Home Office to act on its behalf. They are not Home Office employees and undertake freelance work commissioned by the Home Office. In some circumstances interpreting services are provided by commercial partners.

Interpreters/translators engaged are required to operate to a high standard on a range of protection-based and human rights topics including (though not limited to) religious conversion, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), sexuality and gender-based claims, all types and forms of persecution, medical (physical and mental health) and political activity.

The Home Office also works with other commercial providers and public sector bodies which provide interpreters and linguists to ensure the best sector-wide standards are applied.

Guidance on the use of interpretation and translation services, Detention Services Order ‘Interpretation Services and use of Translation Devices’, was published in July 2022. This guidance sets out the provisions, including interpretation services and translation devices, available for individuals held in immigration detention and the circumstances in which these should be used.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what culturally appropriate oral and written professional translation services are provided by his Department when communicating with (a) applicants for asylum, (b) people in immigration detention, (c) people appealing application decisions and (d) people identified for deportation to Rwanda.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson

The Home Office aims to provide interpreter and translation services for refugees and asylum seekers at public expense whenever and wherever necessary. Interpreters are engaged by the Home Office to act on its behalf. They are not Home Office employees and undertake freelance work commissioned by the Home Office. In some circumstances interpreting services are provided by commercial partners.

Interpreters/translators engaged are required to operate to a high standard on a range of protection-based and human rights topics including (though not limited to) religious conversion, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), sexuality and gender-based claims, all types and forms of persecution, medical (physical and mental health) and political activity.

The Home Office also works with other commercial providers and public sector bodies which provide interpreters and linguists to ensure the best sector-wide standards are applied.

Guidance on the use of interpretation and translation services, Detention Services Order ‘Interpretation Services and use of Translation Devices’, was published in July 2022. This guidance sets out the provisions, including interpretation services and translation devices, available for individuals held in immigration detention and the circumstances in which these should be used.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken was for the conclusion of an application for a voluntary return through the Voluntary Returns Service in (a) Wales and (b) the UK, in the most recent period for which data is available.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson

Information on processing times for voluntary return applications is not held centrally and is not currently captured in a publishable form.

Our priority is to consider applications as efficiently and fairly as possible. There may, however, be circumstances which delay the progression of a case, for example waiting for evidence that is of importance in deciding an application, or a need to obtain documentation to enable travel. In these circumstances, regular reviews are undertaken at appropriate intervals, dependant on the reason why the application cannot be progressed.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the (a) financial and (b) other impacts of delays in assessing voluntary return applications by the Voluntary Returns Service on applicants remaining in the UK.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson

Information on processing times for voluntary return applications is not held centrally and is not currently captured in a publishable form.

Our priority is to consider applications as efficiently and fairly as possible. There may, however, be circumstances which delay the progression of a case, for example waiting for evidence that is of importance in deciding an application, or a need to obtain documentation to enable travel. In these circumstances, regular reviews are undertaken at appropriate intervals, dependant on the reason why the application cannot be progressed.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the use of e-mail to communicate with his Department's customers.

Answered by Paul Maynard

DWP utilises technology which allows encryption with most providers of personal email services, such as Gmail or Outlook, helping this stay secure. As such, email communication with customers is currently permitted in certain circumstances, for example, where the customer has a reasonable adjustment in place.

The Department is keen to utilise the benefits provided by email communication, as part of its work in modernising customer contact channels to deliver modernised services. The department is currently exploring a number of specific possibilities to expand its use of outbound email to communicate with customers, recently testing sending of notifications via email to overseas customers in areas where the postal system is unreliable.

2024 Basque regional election results

Public ownership of water

Essentials guarantee and minimum income guarantee

Skin cancer awareness month

Youth mobility visas

Price cap on baby milk formula

46th anniversary of the murder of Altab Ali

Trans+ History Week

Water sports and pollution

Dementia Action Week

Maasai evictions in Tanzania

Public ownership of water

19th Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony

World Inflammatory Bowel Disease Day 2024

Scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and arms exports to Israel

Diagnosing Coeliac disease

Take Another Look campaign

ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map

Lauren Price, World Champion title

Energy transition treaty

Pesticide use in towns and cities

Work Capability Assessment reforms

Government surveillance of bank accounts

World Press Freedom Day

Gabriel Fares and the Welsh Three Peaks challenge

Drug and alcohol treatment services for women

Diversion schemes for drug-related offending

Armenian Genocide

Contribution of university research

Remembering Fergie MacDonald

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Found: As a Welsh MP, Hywel Williams banged the drum for years about this, and he did not get the honour for

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Found: Sarah Champion Rachel Hopkins Grahame Morris Richard Burgon Sir Iain Duncan Smith Hywel Williams

Found: Sarah Champion Rachel Hopkins Grahame Morris Richard Burgon Sir Iain Duncan Smith Hywel Williams

Found: Sarah Champion Rachel Hopkins Grahame Morris Richard Burgon Sir Iain Duncan Smith Hywel Williams

Found: Sarah Champion Rachel Hopkins Grahame Morris Richard Burgon Sir Iain Duncan Smith Hywel Williams

Found: Sarah Champion Rachel Hopkins Grahame Morris Richard Burgon Sir Iain Duncan Smith Hywel Williams

Found: Sarah Champion Rachel Hopkins Grahame Morris Richard Burgon Sir Iain Duncan Smith Hywel Williams

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Found: Caroline Lucas Cat Smith Debbie Abrahams Mohammad Yasin Ian Lavery Bell Ribeiro-Addy Hywel Williams

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Found: Lucas Wendy Chamberlain Caroline Nokes Sarah Champion Ms Harriet Harman Daisy Cooper Hywel Williams

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Found: Lucas Wendy Chamberlain Caroline Nokes Sarah Champion Ms Harriet Harman Daisy Cooper Hywel Williams

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Found: Lucas Wendy Chamberlain Caroline Nokes Sarah Champion Ms Harriet Harman Daisy Cooper Hywel Williams

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Found: _6 Gavin Newlands Owen Thompson Liz Saville Roberts Hywel Williams Ben Lake ★.

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Found: Plaid’s Treasury spokesman, Hywel Williams MP added: “Instead of cutting corporation tax by 2% across

Found: of Commons Debate on the Silk Commission she clarified this in response to a point raised by Hywel Williams

<p>Young people who are supported by the GISDA charity in my constituency are campaigning for free travel passes for young people under the age of 25. I had a meeting with representatives of the group recently, and I promised to talk about their campaign and highlight it on the floor of the Senedd, and I'm taking the opportunity to do so this afternoon.</p>
<p>In the meeting with the GISDA representatives, they highlighted the barriers preventing young people from accessing the transport that they need. The cost of bus tickets was a huge concern at times. Paying for bus services would take half—half—of their income for the week. They also mentioned anti-social behaviour and that that was a problem on the buses occasionally too. The price of bus travel stops young people from accessing work opportunities, training, education, a full social life, and for the essentials of life, such as food shopping and medical appointments.</p>
<p>The 'Poverty in Arfon' report by the Bevan Foundation, which was commissioned by the former MP Hywel Williams, does highlight the cost-of-living premium in Arfon, namely a premium that means that households face housing, fuel and transport costs that are high, and puts additional pressures on low-income families, particularly in rural parts of the constituency. So, any scheme that would reduce the costs of transportation would contribute to reducing poverty in Arfon and would be of great assistance to young people particularly, and the other benefits, as have been outlined this afternoon, are clear to us all too. Thank you.</p>

<p>Thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. I've had a request to speak in this debate from five of my fellow members in this Chamber: Carolyn Thomas, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Mabon ap Gwynfor, Llyr Gruffydd and Darren Millar. I thank you for your interest, and I look forward to hearing your contributions. It's good to see consensus and cross-party support starting to form around the subject of this short debate.</p>
<p>First of all, I want to set some context for this debate. I want to talk about the new medical school in Bangor and other developments in the offing, and then expand on the main focus of the debate, namely the case for training dentists in Bangor.</p>
<p>Last week, it was great to be present at the official opening of the north Wales medical school in Bangor University. This is a very significant development in terms of improving healthcare and creating training places for local young people and developing the university in Bangor and the local economy. There are 80 students studying medicine in Bangor, with the number increasing to 140 from 2029 onwards.</p>
<p>It was a long campaign, and I do think that the report ‘Tackling the Crisis’, which was commissioned by the former MP Hywel Williams and me back in 2017, made a very important contribution to make the case for establishing the medical school in Bangor.</p>
<p>There are further developments in the pipeline that confirm Bangor's status as a centre of training in health in Wales. Building on all of the training that's already happening, there will be a school of pharmacy that will be established before long. The plan is to introduce two programmes for undergraduates, with the expectation that the first cohort&nbsp;of students will start a year from now, with 35 initially, which will gradually increase to 100 places.</p>