Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial support the Government has allocated to Staffordshire County Council in support of caring for unaccompanied (a) adult and (b) children asylum seekers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The government provides funding to local authorities as a contribution to-wards the costs incurred in supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) and young care leavers who were UASC.
For unaccompanied children arriving from 1 July 2016, local authorities can claim £114 per day for those children aged under 16 and £91 per day for those children aged 16 or 17. The overall value of each claim is dependent on the number of agreed days that children are supported by the local authority. More information on the funding available to local authorities supporting UASC and former UASC care leavers can be found in the funding instructions published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unaccompanied-asylum-seeking-children-uasc-grant-instructions
The Home Office directly provides adult asylum seekers and their dependants who would otherwise be destitute with free furnished accommodation (rent and utility free) and a weekly cash allowance to cover their other essential living needs.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department will publish its response to the firearms licensing fees public consultation.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government sought views on proposals for new fees for firearms licences issued by the Home Office and the Scottish Government in a public consultation, which ran from 12 January to 9 March. A Government response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps is she taking to ensure that bona fide business and personal visitors from African countries to the UK receive an efficient and courteous visa service.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
UKVisas and Immigration continually reviews its global visa operation to improve performance, incorporating customer and partner feedback to ensure value for money while maintaining excellent customer service.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) pieces of unlawful terrorist material have been taken off the internet, (b) hate preachers have been excluded from the UK, (c) organisations have been proscribed in the UK, (d) British citizenships have been revoked and (e) passports removed for terrorism-related reasons since May 2015; and how many arrests the police have made for terrorism-related offences since May 2015.
Answered by Ben Wallace
Following referrals from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU), social media providers have removed 280,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material since February 2010. Between 11 May 2010 and 31 December 2015, the Government excluded 181 people from the United Kingdom, including 69 exclusions on national security grounds.
There were 26 exclusions made between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2015. 71 international terrorist organisations and a further 14 in Northern Ireland, have been proscribed. The Government Transparency Report, published on 23 February 2017, showed that the Royal Prerogative had been used to cancel or refuse applications for passports 23 times in 2015. Figures are not yet available for 2016. From March 2015 to March 2017 there have been 562 arrests for terrorism related offences.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of crime in Stafford constituency in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Police recorded crime figures for Stafford Community Safety Partnership (CSP) between 2011/12 and 2016/17 are published by the Home Office.
Number of crimes recorded by the police, Stafford CSP, 2011/12 to 2016/17. Taken from ‘Police recorded crime open data Community Safety Partnership tables from year ending March 2012 onwards’, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The most recent national crime figures are published by the Office for National Statistics in ‘Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2017’ (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingmar2017).
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of reintroducing the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme to ensure that UK agriculture has sufficient seasonal staff available to harvest, process and pack fruit and vegetables.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The agricultural sector is important to the United Kingdom and we take concerns of labour shortages seriously.
For the time being the United Kingdom remains part of the European Union and freedom of movement continues. The latest labour market statistics, for the year ending December 2016, show that there were 190,000 more EU workers in the UK workforce than a year earlier.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many curfew orders have been issued for anti-social behaviour in Stafford constituency since the introduction of such orders.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Home Office does not hold information on curfew orders issued for anti-social behaviour.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the trends in the level of crime in Stafford constituency in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Crime Survey statistics published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that crime in England and Wales fell by 7% in the year to the end of December 2015 (the latest period for which data is available), and has fallen by well over a quarter since 2010.
Over the same period, crimes recorded by the police have risen. The independent ONS has been clear that rises in police recorded crime are largely the result of more victims coming forward to report certain offences and improvements in police crime recording practices. Police recorded crime for the Stafford constituency for the last three years is shown in the attached table.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many offences involving the fraudulent use of personal information have been reported to Staffordshire Police in each year since 2006; and how many such reports led to a (a) prosecution and (b) conviction.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Home Office do not hold the information requested. The responsibility for recording fraud offences transferred to Action Fraud from individual police forces between April 2011 and March 2013. Therefore, no fraud offences should have been recorded by Staffordshire police since then.
The Ministry of Justice do not hold the information requested on prosecutions and convictions.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 December 2015 to Question 19753, on UK Visa and Immigration correspondence, how many people who received those letters have left the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.