Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on (a) extending the visa expiry dates and (b) offering other measures of relief to Russian (i) Tier 5 unpaid charity volunteers, (ii) students at UK universities whose courses are coming to an end and (iii) other citizens stranded in the UK as a result of sanctions imposed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Someone subject to immigration control who is legally present in the UK is expected to leave the UK before the expiry of their current permission, or to make an in-time application for permission to stay on a route for which they meet the requirements.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will publish a consolidated list of all Russian banks and comparable institutions which (a) are and (b) are not being sanctioned, together with an explanation of the decision not to impose sanctions on all the organisations listed and an estimate of the extent to which those which remain unsanctioned undermine the effectiveness of the sanctions against the Russian banking sector.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The UK Sanctions List, published by the FCDO on GOV.UK, is the comprehensive list of persons or ships designated. Additionally, there are entities listed in Schedule 2 of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, which are covered by sectoral financial measures. The UK is working with our international partners to ensure any action is coordinated and has the maximum impact on parties involved in the unlawful invasion of Ukraine. We will continue to work with allies to identify targets as appropriate.
We have made powerful designations including banking designations which will be the most significant financial sanctions in history. We have introduced asset freezes on major banks, a prohibition on clearing for Sberbank, and the removal of selected banks from SWIFT. We have cut off Russian banks with global assets of £348 billion as well as the central bank in Moscow. We are focusing on measures that have the greatest impact rather than the numbers.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to assess the practicability of using empty NHS and Social Services buildings, including Nightingale hospitals, to assist in the short-term transition of Ukrainian refugee families between arrival in the UK and placement with the sponsors who are offering to accommodate them; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Government is exploring using vacant public sector property for Ukrainians arriving into the UK. Those arriving under the Homes for Ukraine scheme should however proceed directly to the housing provided by their sponsor.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Tier 1 Investor visa applications by people from Russia led to the granting of British citizenship in each year since 2008, broken down by people who subsequently (a) retained and (b) renounced Russian citizenship.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The data is not available. Immigration statistics for the year ending December 2021 are published at Migration statistics. While these include statistics for naturalisation as a British citizen based on residence, they do not identify the specific routes of entry used to secure that residence.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2022 to Question 129730 on British nationality: Russia, if she will urgently take steps to ascertain how many high net-worth Russian people were granted British citizenship in each year since 2010 broken down by people who subsequently (a) retained and (b) renounced Russian citizenship.
Answered by Kevin Foster
As set out in my answer to question 129730, the requirements for a person to register or naturalise as a British citizen are set out in the British Nationality Act 1981 (BNA81). All applications for British citizenship are considered against the relevant requirements of the BNA81.
The net worth of an individual is not a basis on which an application for British citizenship would be granted. Therefore, we do not hold the data as requested as no information relating to an applicant’s net-worth is captured as part of the application process for British citizenship.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take in response to the letter to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State from Marie Lyon, Association for Children Damaged By HPT, Kath Sansom, Sling The Mesh, Emma Murphy and Janet Williams, In-Fact, on behalf of people damaged by vaginal mesh, sodium valproate and Primodos on the implementation of the recommendations of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review 2020 led by Baroness Cumberlege.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department’s central correspondence team have no record of receiving this letter. We would be happy to respond formally if the letter could be re-sent to the Department.
The Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review accepted the majority of the nine strategic recommendations and 50 actions for improvement. The recommendations and actions for improvement included vaginal mesh and sodium valproate. We aim to publish an update on implementation of the accepted recommendations in the summer.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when a reply will be given to the right Hon. member for New Forest East to his letter of 6 December 2021 about a constituent who is unable to wear masks and has been required to work from home by Solent NHS Trust, despite being triple-vaccinated for covid-19 and working in a non-customer facing role at a desk two metres apart from any other in their normal workplace.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We replied to the Rt hon. Member on 15 March 2022.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the sanctions announced on 9 March 2022 jointly by her Department and the Department of Transport will apply to all aviation companies identified as Russian owned, together with their subsidiaries, whether or not those companies are based within Russia; whether a consolidated list of such companies and their subsidiaries has been (a) compiled and (b) circulated to relevant departments with responsibility for applying such sanctions; whether all merchant vessels (i) owned by and (ii) leased to Russians, or (iii) flagged to other countries but carrying Russian cargo will be banned from UK ports or seized if already under UK jurisdiction; and whether Russia has been excluded from the London insurance market such that existing cover for Russian items has been cancelled as of 14 March 2022.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
All Russian aircraft have been banned from British airspace and Russian shipping has been blocked from entering UK ports. It is a criminal offence for Russian aircraft to operate in UK airspace, including the export of aviation and space-related goods and technology to Russia and the provision of insurance to the Russian aviation and space industries. UK Government ministers have signed legislation banning all ships that are Russian owned, operated, controlled, chartered, registered or flagged from entering British ports since 15:00 on 1 March 2022.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress has been made in establishing the South East Regional specialist centre for the treatment of women damaged by mesh implants; and whether checks will be carried out to ensure that such women, when seeking remedial treatment from that specialist centre, are not placed in the hands of surgeons who were responsible for (a) implanting the mesh originally, (b) denying that anything had gone wrong with the implants and (c) claiming that women reporting extreme physical pain from the implants were imagining it.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The specialist centre for the South East region based at Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is now accepting referrals and offering treatment to patients who have been adversely affected by mesh implants. The surgery to remove mesh implanted for stress urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapse is a relatively new surgical discipline. Expertise is therefore concentrated in a limited number of specialist centres, such as the South East centre, led by a core multi-disciplinary team including consultant specialists in urogynaecology, urology and colorectal surgery. Patients also have access to a team including pelvic floor specialist physiotherapy, psychology, psychosexual counselling, occupational therapy, specialist imaging and pain management services.
Patients can discuss their choice of surgeon with the multi-disciplinary team if they have concerns regarding a specific clinician and can also discuss a referral to a surgeon in another specialist mesh centre.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she plans to take steps with the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to increase the resources available to the BBC Monitoring Service in respect of (a) Russia, (b) Ukraine and (c) other European countries connected to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
As set out in the BBC Monitoring Agreement, the BBC is responsible for the funding, staffing and administration of BBC Monitoring. The Government, as a Key Customer of the service, is liaising closely with BBC Monitoring on prioritisation and surge resourcing requirements.