Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the reasons were for the December 2017 increase to the minimum points threshold for Tier 2 certificates of sponsorship; what the annual quota for such certificates is; and what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of provision of such certificates for private sector employers wising to hire non-EU staff.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Tier 2, our main immigration route for non-EEA workers, operates an annual cap of 20,700 places per year. The cap, which was set on advice from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), ensures that the Government can control migration and encourages employers to look first to the domestic workforce before recruiting from overseas.
Restricted Certificates of Sponsorship – which are places within the cap – are allocated by points scores. When demand exceeds available places, priority, and the highest number of points, is awarded to occupations in national shortage first. The higher minimum points score in December 2017 was due to a rise in demand.
We keep all of our immigration routes under review.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to review the annual quota of Tier 2 visas.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Tier 2, our main immigration route for non-EEA workers, operates an annual cap of 20,700 places per year. The cap, which was set on advice from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), ensures that the Government can control migration and encourages employers to look first to the domestic workforce before recruiting from overseas.
Places are allocated on a monthly basis to ensure consistency and that places can be allocated according to priority. Places are allocated first to those in occupations which are in national shortage and which appear on the published Shortage Occupation List (SOL). The SOL is drawn up on the basis of advice from the MAC.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to expedite the issuing of Tier 2 visas.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Tier 2, our main immigration route for non-EEA workers, operates an annual cap of 20,700 places per year. The cap, which was set on advice from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), ensures that the Government can control migration and encourages employers to look first to the domestic workforce before recruiting from overseas.
Places are allocated on a monthly basis to ensure consistency and that places can be allocated according to priority. Places are allocated first to those in occupations which are in national shortage and which appear on the published Shortage Occupation List (SOL). The SOL is drawn up on the basis of advice from the MAC.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on ensuring the availability of safe accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Home Office Ministers are working very closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to find a sustainable future for refuges and other forms of safe accommodation, in order that we meet the specialist needs of all those fleeing domestic abuse
In addition, the Home Secretary regularly discusses issues relating to all Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) at the VAWG Inter-Ministerial Group.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on ensuring the availability of safe accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Home Office Ministers are working very closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to find a sustainable future for refuges and other forms of safe accommodation, in order that we meet the specialist needs of all those fleeing domestic abuse
In addition, the Home Secretary regularly discusses issues relating to all Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) at the VAWG Inter-Ministerial Group.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of reports of child sexual exploitation there have been in (a) Telford constituency and (b) UK in each of the last three years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office began collecting information on Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) offences on a mandatory basis in April 2016. As CSE is not an offence as defined in law, the police will flag an offence if it is related to CSE in their statistical returns to the Home Office.
We are presently working with police forces over the quality of these data ahead of future publication.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle cyber harassment.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Legislation is in place to deal with internet trolls, cyber-stalking and cyber harassment, and perpetrators of grossly offensive, obscene or menacing behaviour. Through the Criminal Justice Act 2015, we have strengthened two communications offences which can be used to prosecute misuse of social media: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, giving the police longer to investigate either offence, and increasing the maximum penalty for the former to two years imprisonment.
Through the UK Council for Child Internet Safety, we have brought together industry, law enforcement, academia, charities and parenting groups to work in partnership to help keep children and young people safe online.
Asked by: Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of sexual offences committed against children in Telford.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Tackling child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a top priority for this Government and we are taking a wide range of actions to reduce sexual offences against children. We have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement, setting a clear expectation on police forces to collaborate across force boundaries, to safeguard children, to share intelligence and to share best practice.
We have introduced new powers for the police to tackle offenders including new Sexual Risk Orders in the Serious Crime Act. The College of Policing and the National Policing Lead have set the requirement for all forces to train all new and existing police staff to respond to child sexual abuse. We have also made £1.5 million available to the National Policing Lead to fund National CSE Action Plan regional co-ordinators and analysts to drive improvements in the police response and better identify organised abuse.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary published a report on its National Child Protection re-inspection of West Mercia Constabulary on 21 January this year. Although HMIC highlighted some areas that needed improvement, inspectors found that West Mercia Police had reviewed its public protection structures, systems and processes and had invested significant extra resources into child protection.