Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she made of the (a) financial and (b) social challenges of redistributing potentially thousands of illegal immigrants in different regions of the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not accommodate illegal migrants, but does have a statutory obligation to provide accommodation and other support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their application for asylum is being considered.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has taken steps to plan for the impact on its work of a potential increase in numbers of people seeking asylum in the UK because of the effect of climate change in their countries of origin.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK recognises the need to better understand the complex links between migration, climate change and environmental degradation to inform our policy and action. Where relevant, all Government departments include climate change impact as part of their policy development and analysis.
Initial analysis suggests that climate extremes and environmental degradation are often amplifiers of other principal migration drivers.
Climate change is not covered in the Refugee Convention as grounds for a well-founded fear of persecution and we do not have any plans to broaden this definition. We recognise however, that climate change will increasingly become a significant factor in driving migration. For those who do not qualify for refugee status, we consider whether they are at risk of serious harm and are in need of protection on humanitarian grounds. This ensures that we do not remove anyone who faces persecution or serious harm on return to their country of origin. If protection is not required, we consider if there are any family or private life reasons, medical reasons or other exceptional circumstances that would warrant a grant of leave.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has she made of the potential impact of overcrowding at Manston Processing Centre on people at that facility, including on the spread of infections.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office has increased the operating capacity of the facility as the number of individuals held on-site has increased.
The facility provides suitable welfare provisions including hot food, fresh clothing, toilet facilities and sanitary packs. 24/7 medical care is provided and any instances of communicable disease are handled in line with public health guidance.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the current protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, if the Government will take steps to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Whilst the UK Government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under review, we do not routinely comment on whether an organisation is or is not being considered for proscription.
The death of Mahsa Amini is a shocking reminder of the repression faced by women in Iran. The UK condemns the Iranian authorities’ crackdown on protestors, journalists and internet freedom. The use of violence in response to the expression of fundamental rights, by women or any other members of Iranian society, is wholly unjustifiable.
On the 10th October, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced sanctions on senior security and political figures in Iran and the Morality Police. The Morality Police has been sanctioned in its entirety, as well as both its chief, Mohammed Rostami Cheshmeh Gachi and the Head of the Tehran Division Haj Ahmed Mirzaei. Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Basij force, who is responsible for internal security in Iran has also been subject to sanctions for committing serious human rights violations.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on taking steps to help protect small businesses from fraud through identity theft.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The detail of discussions with Cabinet peers are held in confidence. I would, however, like to reassure you that we understand the harms caused by identity theft and that tackling fraud is a priority for Government.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the recruitment of overseas workers as farming machinery operatives; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating a temporary visa scheme for these workers modelled on the temporary visa scheme for HGV drivers.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government has no plans to introduce a general immigration route allowing recruitment at or near the minimum wage, with relatively short work-based training requirements, nor will there be another similar visa concession to the HGV temporary scheme.
We have no plans to extend the skills threshold below RQF level 3 unless there are truly exceptional circumstances, such as adding care workers to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). The Government has recently commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to undertake a review of the SOL. We expect the MAC will shortly launch its call for evidence and we encourage interested stakeholders to respond.
Our immigration system is not aiming to replicate the free movement which previously existed between the UK and the EU. The Government recognises some businesses are needing to adjust, but investment and development of the UK’s domestic labour force should take priority, rather than seeing cheap migrant labour as the solution to recruitment difficulties.
Beyond the Points Based System is a wide labour market, which includes UK workers and migrants with general work rights. Businesses should therefore engage with the Department for Work and Pensions in the first instance about the support they can provide.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff were working in European visa centres during the weeks commencing (a) 7, (b) 14, (c) 21 and (d) 28 March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The number of staff working in the Visa Application Centres (VACs) in Europe, which are operated by TLS Contact on behalf of UKVI, is not publicly available. However, in response to the recent increased demand in some VACs neighbouring Ukraine, UKVI surged additional staff to help meet demand and support people through the process as quickly as possible and significantly increased the number of appointments available in those locations.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made changes to her Department's policy on overtime to assist with the processing of visas for Ukrainian refugees.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The opportunity to work overtime has been offered to all staff working on our Ukraine related schemes.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas for Ukrainian refugees approved have been approved each day since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on the number of visas granted under the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme which were launched in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Schemes: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Statistical information regarding the number of Ukrainian nationals applying for UK visas prior to the launch of the Ukraine Schemes is regularly released by the Home Office. The latest published statistics can be found here: Immigration statistics, year ending December 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent staff in her Department were processing visa applications for Ukrainian refugees during the weeks commencing (a) 7, (b) 14, (c) 21 and (d) 28 March 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We have received thousands of applications submitted to one of the fastest and largest visa programmes in UK history.
We are committed to ensuring our operational teams have the resources they need to run an efficient and effective system. We actively monitor workflows to ensure sufficient resources are in place to meet caseworking demand of the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme which we have launched in response to the refugee crisis.
The Home Office and the commercial provider operating our Visa Application Centres have surged staff across Europe to meet demand and UKVI staff in the UK are working seven days a week to process applications.
To capture the detailed information on staff numbers and hours worked would incur disproportionate cost.