Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the importance of the Shortage Occupation List to the UK video games industry.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government agrees with the view of the independent and expert Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) that the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) is only of "negligible benefit" to the UK video games industry – namely reduced visa fees. The industry can use the Skilled Worker route, regardless of whether its jobs are on the SOL.
The main benefit of the SOL is in providing a discount to the general salary threshold for the Skilled Worker route, currently set at £26,200 per year. The going rate for ‘Programmers and software development professionals (Standard Occupational Code: 2136)’ is above the current general threshold of £26,200 at £34,000 per year. Occupations with going rates above the general threshold would not benefit from this discount, as Skilled Workers would need to be paid the higher of the general threshold or the going rate for that occupation.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
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 permitting Tier 2 ICT visa holders, who had switched to a Skilled Worker visa, to be allowed to use their time spent on a Tier 2 ICT visas as a route to settlement in the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
It is Home Office policy that entry and stay under routes designed to accommodate intra-company transfers is temporary and should not lead to settlement. Consequently, leave granted to ICTs does not count towards settlement if the holder switches into another economic migration route. The ICT routes facilitate mobility of key staff in accordance with our trade commitments and are not intended to give access to the UK labour market long term.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to protect older and more vulnerable people from rogue traders.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government recognises the serious risks presented by scams and fraud and the huge financial and emotional impact they can have on victims. This is why the Home Office is working with other departments, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact on victims, and ensure fraudsters have no space to operate.
This includes the development of a new Fraud Action Plan, the relaunch of the Joint Fraud Taskforce and publication of charters with the retail banking, telecommunications and accountancy sectors. As part of the Police Uplift Programme to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by 2023, we have prioritised more investigators in the City of London Police to fulfil their role as a world class fraud specialist force.
We have also channelled additional resource into the Regional Organised Crime Unit network to work on a host of serious and organised crime threats including fraud. The Government is also reviewing asset recovery powers to ensure the architects of such scams cannot profit from their crimes and intends to bring forward legislation on crypto assets when parliamentary time allows.
We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action Fraud and to forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, free of charge.
This information is being used by the City of London Police alongside crime reports to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters. Any contact with rogue traders should also be reported to Trading Standards at
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/report-to-trading-standards/.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to protect older and more vulnerable people from online scams.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government recognises the serious risks presented by scams and fraud and the huge financial and emotional impact they can have on victims. This is why the Home Office is working with other departments, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact on victims, and ensure fraudsters have no space to operate.
This includes the development of a new Fraud Action Plan, the relaunch of the Joint Fraud Taskforce and publication of charters with the retail banking, telecommunications and accountancy sectors. As part of the Police Uplift Programme to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by 2023, we have prioritised more investigators in the City of London Police to fulfil their role as a world class fraud specialist force.
We have also channelled additional resource into the Regional Organised Crime Unit network to work on a host of serious and organised crime threats including fraud. The Government is also reviewing asset recovery powers to ensure the architects of such scams cannot profit from their crimes and intends to bring forward legislation on crypto assets when parliamentary time allows.
We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action Fraud and to forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, free of charge.
This information is being used by the City of London Police alongside crime reports to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters. Any contact with rogue traders should also be reported to Trading Standards at
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/report-to-trading-standards/.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government is developing plans to protect investors from potential crypto currency scams.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government recognises the serious risks presented by scams and fraud and the huge financial and emotional impact they can have on victims. This is why the Home Office is working with other departments, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact on victims, and ensure fraudsters have no space to operate.
This includes the development of a new Fraud Action Plan, the relaunch of the Joint Fraud Taskforce and publication of charters with the retail banking, telecommunications and accountancy sectors. As part of the Police Uplift Programme to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by 2023, we have prioritised more investigators in the City of London Police to fulfil their role as a world class fraud specialist force.
We have also channelled additional resource into the Regional Organised Crime Unit network to work on a host of serious and organised crime threats including fraud. The Government is also reviewing asset recovery powers to ensure the architects of such scams cannot profit from their crimes and intends to bring forward legislation on crypto assets when parliamentary time allows.
We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action Fraud and to forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, free of charge.
This information is being used by the City of London Police alongside crime reports to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters. Any contact with rogue traders should also be reported to Trading Standards at
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/report-to-trading-standards/.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase the number of sites where applicants can submit biometric data for the purposes of (a) visa and (b) passport applications.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Visa applicants are able to access an extensive network of biometric enrolment locations across the UK and globally. The number and location of these application points is regularly reviewed with our commercial partners to ensure that our service is responsive to changes in demand.
The applicant’s facial biometric is captured for UK passport purposes from the image supplied with the application, and there are no restrictions on the site where the image can be taken providing that the resulting photograph is compliant. There are no other biometrics captured as part of a UK passport application.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure a trained mental health specialist is on duty in all emergency service call centres to assist with identifying callers who may require mental health support.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The staffing of emergency service call centres is an operational matter for the police. Over thirty police forces across the country now operate some form of street triage scheme. Some of these consist of mental health professionals embedded in call centres, while others adopt a model of joint working between police officers and mental health professionals on the front line.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to make it a requirement for all on-duty uniformed and armed police to wear body cameras.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The decision to procure and deploy BWV cameras is a matter for Police and Crime Commissioners and chief officers. The Home Office is aware that most forces in England and Wales use BWV to some extent. Each force will have its own implementation plan and schedule for the rollout of cameras, but this information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the use of body-worn cameras to capture evidence for use in law courts.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The decision to procure and deploy BWV cameras is a matter for Police and Crime Commissioners and chief officers.
Asked by: Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that all on-duty uniformed and armed officers wear body-worn cameras.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The decision to procure and deploy body worn video (BWV) cameras is one for Police and Crime Commissioner and chief officers.