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Written Question
Asylum: Age Assurance
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of young asylum seekers have been identified as being over the age of 18 following (a) age verification and (b) identity checks in each of the last five years.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications by age is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to 2023.

Data on age disputes is published in table Asy_D05 of the ‘Age disputes detailed dataset’. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2023.

Information on how to use these datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each workbook. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the ‘summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on asylum applications by age and age disputes.

Please note that an age dispute could, for example, be resolved following: a Merton compliant age assessment; receipt of credible and clear documentary evidence of age; a judicial finding on age; following a determination by two Home Office officers that the person’s physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests they are significantly over the age of 18; or, where the reasons for raising an age dispute no longer apply.


Written Question
Offenders: Deportation
Tuesday 19th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were deported after having been found to have committed a criminal offence (a) in the UK since entering the country and (b) in a foreign country prior to entering the UK since 2010.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Home Office does publish statistics on enforced returns for those who have claimed asylum since 2010. These returns are published in table RET_05 of the returns summary table which can be found at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Asylum-related returns in this summary relate to cases where there has been an asylum claim at some stage prior to the return. This will include asylum seekers whose asylum claims have been withdrawn, refused, and who have exhausted any rights of appeal, those returned under third country provisions, as well as those granted asylum/protection, but removed for other reasons (such as criminality). Asylum-related returns broken down by status is not available from published statistics.

Additionally, the published statistics refer to enforced returns which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily. Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.

Furthermore, information on someone that has been deported after having been found to have committed a criminal offence in a foreign country prior to entering the UK since 2010 is not separately available from published statistics.


Written Question
Asylum
Tuesday 19th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were charged with a criminal offence since entering the UK in each year since 2015.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

After further conversation with MOJ colleagues, please see amended response to your written question;

The number of people charged with a criminal offence will be data held by the Police, the number of asylum seekers within that total will be a subset. It’s not information we hold.

All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to confirm their identity and to link it to their biometric details for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks. These checks are critical to the delivery of a safe and secure immigration system.

If the asylum claimant is aged 16 years or over, their fingerprints will be checked against those fingerprints held on the police biometric database, IDENT1. An asylum decision-maker will be able to confirm the presence of a criminal offence charge. However, this information is not held in a reportable format and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would require a manual trawl of case records to retrieve.


Written Question
Asylum
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding asylum claims there are.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum claims awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to December 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.


Written Question
Detention Centres: Dunkirk
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions he has had with his French counterparts on the construction of a new detention centre near Dunkirk.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Home Secretary has regular contact with his French counterpart, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. They most recently met in January where they discussed our ongoing cooperation to stop small boat crossings, which last year saw a 36% reduction in small boat arrivals compared to 2022.

The new detention centre is part of the agreement reached by the Prime Minister and President Macron in March 2023. This detention centre, once operational, will allow France to more effectively return migrants to their home countries or safe third countries.


Written Question
Burglary
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had discussions with police forces on the pledge that a police officer will attend every burgled home.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows a 56% fall in domestic burglaries when comparing the year ending September 2023 with year ending March 2010. This is clearly good news; however, we recognise the impact domestic burglary can have on individuals and communities and we are committed to tackling and preventing this crime.

The public rightly expects that the police will visit them when a home burglary has been committed, which is why we welcome the announcement made by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on 8 June that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been implementing this attendance policy since March 2023. https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-now-attending-scene-of-every-home-burglary

The police commitment to attend home burglaries is supported by specific College of Policing good practice guidance on conducting residential burglary investigations: https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/residential-burglary.

We continue to engage with the NPCC and the police on tackling burglary through an array of different forums, including the Residential Burglary Taskforce and the National Policing Board. We will be working with police leaders to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public.


Written Question
Israel: Hamas
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had recent discussions with (a) the Metropolitan Police and (b) other police forces on the cost to the public purse of policing protests relating to the Israel-Hamas conflict since October 2023.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Secretary and Minister of State for Policing, Crime and Fire speak to chief constables on an ongoing basis on a range of subjects. As set out in the Home Affairs Select Committee’s recent report, NPCC and MPS leaders indicate that the costs of the policing Israel-Hamas-related protests was at least £25million between 7 October and 17 December. However, this figure includes the costs of community patrols, engagement and investigations that have taken place in efforts to tackle issues related to the ongoing Israel-Hamas-related conflict.

While we expect all police forces to hold reasonable levels of contingency funding for unplanned operations, it is open to Police and Crime Commissioners and their equivalents to request additional funding through the Police Special Grant. Criteria and guidance are published on gov.uk Special grant guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). It should be noted that the Metropolitan Police has the highest level of officers and funding per capita of all forces in England and Wales and a third more funding than similar areas like Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.


Written Question
Home Office: Staff
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent staff in his Department work on policy relating to immigration as of 4 March 2024.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Migration and Borders Group (MBG) provides the immigration policy advice for the Home Office. The most recent published data for the group as a whole in the Home Office Accounts for 2022-23 show 910 full time equivalent (FTE) working in MBG. Not all of those FTE are specifically part of the policy profession but they will contribute to the development of Home Office immigration policy. Further information will be available in the Home Office 2023-24 accounts, which will be published shortly.


Written Question
Entry Clearances: Overseas Students
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of international undergraduate students at universities in England applied for indefinite leave to remain after their studies in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Student route is a temporary immigration route and does not lead to settlement in the UK. However, students may apply to extend their leave on other routes to remain in the UK, provided they meet the requirements.

The Home Office publishes data on how people move through the immigration system in the Migrant Journey report. The report contains information on the number of people granted settlement each year by initial immigration route in dataset MJ_D02. The latest report covers up to the end of 2022.


Written Question
Community Policing: Lincolnshire
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of neighbourhood policing levels in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Decisions about how neighbourhood policing is delivered, including the size, composition and prioritisation of neighbourhood policing teams are for operationally independent Chief Constables. They are best placed to use their local knowledge and experience to serve local communities. Democratically elected PCCs, or mayors with these functions, are responsible for holding Chief Constables to account for their running of the force. As set out at the National Policing Board on 31 January, we do however, expect Chief Constables and PCCs to put neighbourhoods at the heart of local policing plans, and to ensure abstractions of officers from core policing roles are minimised.

This government is giving policing the resources it needs to police local communities and fight crime. We have delivered on our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional police officers and there are now over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, higher than the previous peak before the Police Uplift Programme, in March 2010.

As a result of our investment, as at 31 March 2023, Lincolnshire Constabulary recruited 189 additional officers against a total three-year allocation of 166 officers. As at 31 March 2023, in Lincolnshire, there were 652 full time equivalent police officers employed in local policing roles, an increase of 7.7% (46 FTE) on the previous year when there were 605 FTE police officers in local policing roles. Those working within local policing roles in Lincolnshire accounted for 56.9% of all officers as at 31 March 2023.