Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that individuals with family in the UK who switch to a SOC 6145 health worker visa are not separated from their dependents.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Individuals who choose to switch into a visa also choose to accept the terms and conditions of that visa. Further details on the net migration measures announced in December, including about dependant restrictions, are available here: www.gov.uk/government/news/fact-sheet-on-net-migration-measures-further-detail.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) discussions and (b) correspondence he has had with the Migration Advisory Committee on the proposed change in the salary threshold for spouse visas.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The decision to raise the MIR was taken to ensure that migration policy is supportive of the wider ambition for the UK to be a high-wage, high-productivity, high-skill economy, and help to ensure that migrants make a net positive contribution to the public finances in addition to ensuring that families would not need to have recourse to welfare and had sufficient resources to participate in British life.
Previous advice and evidence provided by the Migration Advisory Committee regarding net-fiscal contributions and access to benefits was considered when making this decision. We did not seek further advice from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) before making the decision to increase the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) element of the family immigration rules.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to share with universities the number of dependents linked to an individual's study visa.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Information related to applications and dependants is contained across multiple systems and we do not publish data relating to the number of dependants per student by institution.
Universities have a direct relationship with their students during the academic application and enrolment process and the Home Office encourages institutions to use these mechanisms if they wish to gather data regarding family members of students.
We keep our immigration policies under constant review to ensure they serve the UK’s best interests and reflect our priorities.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution by the Minister for Security on 1 November 2022, Official Report column 791, what progress her Department has made on establishing a taskforce on national security and safeguarding democracy; and if the Minister for Security will meet with the hon. Member for Batley and Spen to discuss that matter.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
It has become increasingly apparent that the threats to our democratic institutions and wider society are growing, both in depth and complexity, and at pace. As a result, on 1 November, the Security Minister announced to Parliament that the Prime Minister had asked him to lead a taskforce to drive forward work to protect UK democratic processes
In the time since, the Security Minister has established the new Defending Democracy Taskforce, with the first meeting taking place on 28 November 2022. The Taskforce aims to reduce the risk to the UK’s democratic processes, institutions, and society, and ensure that these are secure and resilient to threats of foreign interference. The Taskforce brings together the many structures both inside and outside of Government. We are particularly committed to the Taskforce working across government and with Parliament, the UK Intelligence Community, the devolved administrations, academics, and the private sector.
This Taskforce has a mandate to look at the full range of threats facing our democratic institutions and how we build further resilience to safeguard them against physical, personnel and cyber threats.
The offices for the Security Minister and the hon. Member for Batley and Spen are engaging directly to schedule a meeting in the New Year.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to make a decision on the pay reward for staff of the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Discussions with the Independent Office for Police Conduct are ongoing and a decision on their 2022/23 pay remit will be made in due course.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department will provide funding to facilitate a fourth FireAid convoy to provide firefighting equipment to Ukraine.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Home Office officials are providing non-financial support to National Fire Chief’s Council, Fire Aid and the UK’s fire industry who are organising and funding a fourth convoy.
The Home Office earlier this year funded and supported three substantial road convoys of fire and rescue vehicles that were donated to Ukraine. Overall, 60 fire and rescue vehicles and over 150,000 items of equipment donated by the UK’s fire and rescue services were successfully delivered to the front line.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that police forces have the resources they require to tackle dangerous and anti-social driving.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Government is determined to give the police the resources they need to deal with dangerous and anti-social driving.
The Government published a total police funding settlement of up to £16.9 billion in 2022/23, an increase of up to £1.1 billion compared to 2021/22.
Operational decisions regarding the deployment of resources are for Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to provide urgent fire fighting equipment to Ukraine.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are helping to ensure that crucial fire and rescue equipment and PPE donated by Fire and Rescue Services will get to where it can directly provide support to firefighters, emergency services and volunteers on the front line in Ukraine.
The Home Secretary speaks regularly to her counterpart at Ukraine’s Interior Ministry and the Ukrainian Ambassador in London to understand what practical help we can offer.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to respond to the People History Museum's postcard campaign Standing Together on refugees.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
I am aware of the People History Museum’s campaign, Standing Together, which opposes The Nationality and Borders Bill.
The Nationality and Borders Bill is part of the Government’s New Plan for Immigration, delivering the most comprehensive reform of the asylum system in decades.
Noting in particular the human rights concerns raised by this campaign, the Government confirms that the Bill - and the wider plan – comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Refugee Convention.
Asked by: Kim Leadbeater (Labour - Spen Valley)
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 extending registration of deaths by telephone following the expiration of the Coronavirus Act 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Regulations have been introduced which will allow information to be collected by telephone before attendance at a register office to formally register a death.
The General Register Office for England and Wales is exploring options to bring forward amendments to primary legislation to allow for registration by telephone to be completed in the future.