Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many registered sex offenders have no fixed accommodation.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Qualifying offenders (i.e., those convicted for an offence in Schedule 3 to the Sexual Offences Act 2003) are required to notify personal details to the police. This system is often referred to as the ‘sex offenders’ register’ and requires offenders to provide specified details annually and whenever those details change. Registered sex offenders with no fixed abode are required to notify their details every seven days.
The information provided to the police, and other relevant information, is stored on the ViSOR database which allows for the recording and sharing of information relevant to an offender’s risk between the police and other relevant agencies. The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistics about (the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). The most recent statistics were published on 31 October and showed that on 31 March 2024, 70,052 sex offenders were managed under MAPPA. Those statistics relate to MAPPA as a system: the volumes of offenders managed at the three different risk levels, or the volumes of risk management tools (such as sexual harm prevention orders) made by a court in the reporting year. There are no plans to include information about offenders with no fixed abode in this publication.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many properties are being used to house asylum seekers in Wansbeck as of 19 December 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority, although not broken down into hotels or other accommodation can be found in the attached link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are housed in Wansbeck as of 19 December 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority, although not broken down into hotels or other accommodation can be found in the attached link https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) prioritise applications for asylum and (b) reduce waiting times for those applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
To accelerate decision making we are streamlining and modernising the end-to-end process, with improved guidance, enhancing use of digital technology, and introducing more efficient ways to handling claims.
We have already doubled our decision makers over the last 2 years, and we are continuing to recruit more. This will take our expected number of decision makers to 1,800 by this summer and 2,500 by September 2023.
We are making good progress and, as of the end of May 2023 (based on provisional data), the legacy backlog has reduced by over 17,000 cases since the end of November 2022.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will take steps to improve public recognition of the sacrifice made by police officers killed in service.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It is important that we recognise the vital role the police play in society. This is never more true than when officers and staff make the ultimate sacrifice in order to help keep us safe. That is why the Government supported the creation of the National Police Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum and enshrined the Police Covenant in law.
All UK honours and medals are in the personal gift of HM The Queen under the Royal prerogative. The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medal (HD Committee) gives advice to The Queen on honours matters, including new forms of official national recognition.
The Honours and Appointments Secretariat in the Cabinet Office supports the Committee and will consider the options for recognition.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of the introduction of a posthumous Elizabeth medal to recognise police officers who lose their lives on the front line of policing.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It is important that we recognise the vital role the police play in society. This is never more true than when officers and staff make the ultimate sacrifice in order to help keep us safe. That is why the Government supported the creation of the National Police Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum and enshrined the Police Covenant in law.
All UK honours and medals are in the personal gift of HM The Queen under the Royal prerogative. The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medal (HD Committee) gives advice to The Queen on honours matters, including new forms of official national recognition.
The Honours and Appointments Secretariat in the Cabinet Office supports the Committee and will consider the options for recognition.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle delays to (a) interviews and (b) asylum decisions for asylum seekers processed by her Department.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is pursuing a wide range of programmes which will transform our systems and processes alongside a number of business improvement initiatives to speed up decision making, reduce the time people spend in the system and reduce the numbers who are awaiting an interview where required or a decision.
Additionally to transformation, in response to the raising number of asylum claims and delays, we are working to increase decision makers as well as providing improved training and career progression opportunities to aid retention of staff. This investment in our people will speed up processing times and increase the throughput of asylum decisions.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle delays to applications for the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Our aim is to process all applications to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) as quickly as possible.
We currently have 1,500 UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) European Casework staff in post. We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system, and we actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet demand.
Each individual case is considered on its own facts, which means some cases will inevitably take longer than others to conclude. Cases may take longer dependent if, for example, the applicant is facing an impending prosecution or has a criminal record.
The following link lists the expected processing times for EU Settlement Scheme applications, based upon current performance:
The rights of those EU citizens and their family members who were lawfully resident at the end of the transition period and who, from 1 July 2021, have a pending application under the EUSS made by the deadline, or an appeal against the refusal of an application submitted by then, will be protected until their application is finally determined.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the increase in right-wing extremism.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We take the threat from right wing extremism and terrorism very seriously. There are regular discussions between departments on how we respond to that threat.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national NHS and social care workers have (a) paid and (b) been refunded the NHS surcharge since 21 May 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
This information is not readily available nor held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost due to the fact the IHS is payable across multiple application routes. For example, where the customer is on a visa with a general right to work and takes up employment, we do not have a record who the employer is. Since the Prime Minister’s announcement, we have been working at pace to identify and issue refunds to those customers who are eligible and hold Tier 2 (General) visas.