Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that offers of practical help to women outside abortion clinics will be permitted when section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023 is implemented.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023 does not criminalise any specific activity within safe access zones. It introduces a new criminal offence for a person who is within a Safe Access Zone to do an act with the intent of, or reckless as to whether it has the effect of, influencing any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services, obstructing or impeding any person accessing, providing, or facilitating the provision of abortion services, or causing harassment, alarm or distress to any person in connection with a decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has provided guidance to the police on making assessments of whether a Public Spaces Protection Order around an abortion clinic has been breached in respect of prayer.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
In June 2022 the Government published updated statutory guidance on the use of Antisocial Behaviour powers, including Public Spaces Protection Orders. This can be found here - Anti-social behaviour powers (publishing.service.gov.uk).
Decisions regarding the imposition of Public Space Protection Orders, and what restrictions are included are matters for the local authority which is required to consider people’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The enforcement of Public Space Protection Orders is a matter for the local authority and other relevant local partners, including the police, in line with wider human rights considerations.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to respond to the correspondence of 16 November 2022 from the hon. Member for North Tyneside.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office replied on 13 January 2023.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) her Department's target is for processing and (b) the average processing time was in the latest period for which data is available for a family visa for the spouse of a British citizen.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
An applicant applying for a family visa at entry clearance should get a decision within 24 weeks.
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
An applicant applying in the UK to extend a family visa (spouse or partner on a 5-year route to settlement) should get a decision within 8 weeks.
Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
An applicant applying in the UK for settlement should get a decision within 6 months.
Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Average processing times do not form part of any current transparency data for spouse/partner applications and are not published.
The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide an estimate of the likely timescales for Afghan people resettled to the UK under the (a) ARAP scheme and (b) ACRS scheme and who are currently living in bridging accommodation to be re-housed.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We do not want to keep people in temporary accommodation for any longer than is absolutely necessary. We have moved – or are in the process of moving - over 6,000 people into homes since June 2021. There is a huge effort underway to support the families into permanent homes as soon as we can so they can settle and rebuild their lives, and to ensure those still temporarily accommodated in hotels are given the best start to their life in the UK.
The length of time a family will remain in bridging hotels is dependent on several factors including sufficient offers of appropriate housing by local authorities. We strive to allocate the right families into the right accommodation to ensure their integration into their new communities in the UK is as smooth as possible. To achieve this, we triage and prioritise families to ensure the settled accommodation provides the best possible match, taking into consideration date of arrival into the UK, family size, vulnerability and integration factors.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of (a) the effect of new covid-19 related checks on people arriving in the UK on the length of queues in (i) airports and (ii) seaports and (b) the effect of those queues on the risk of covid-19 contagion.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Border Force continue to monitor performance closely and this includes passenger queues.? Service level agreements are set to ensure 95% of arriving passengers clear passport control within 25 minutes for arrivals from the European Union and 45 minutes for the rest of the world. Passengers arriving in the UK continue to be cleared in line with these agreements.
Border Force operations at ports are conducted in line with social distancing guidance as set out by the relevant Public Health bodies, although port operators are more widely responsible for compliance across their estate.
Border Force staff in ports will be able to respond flexibly in the volume of checks conducted if there is a risk of congestion causing public health concerns.
Border Force officers complete spot checks to ensure relevant biometric information matches that presented in the passport (or travel document) and
other details appear to be credible.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the ability of Border Force staff to verify information on completed public health passenger locator forms.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Border Force continue to monitor performance closely and this includes passenger queues.? Service level agreements are set to ensure 95% of arriving passengers clear passport control within 25 minutes for arrivals from the European Union and 45 minutes for the rest of the world. Passengers arriving in the UK continue to be cleared in line with these agreements.
Border Force operations at ports are conducted in line with social distancing guidance as set out by the relevant Public Health bodies, although port operators are more widely responsible for compliance across their estate.
Border Force staff in ports will be able to respond flexibly in the volume of checks conducted if there is a risk of congestion causing public health concerns.
Border Force officers complete spot checks to ensure relevant biometric information matches that presented in the passport (or travel document) and
other details appear to be credible.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce alcohol-related violence.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government wants to ensure swift action to tackle alcohol-related offending. As set out in our manifesto, we will expand electronic tagging for criminals serving time outside jail, including the use of sobriety tags for those whose offending is fuelled by alcohol.
We have also focused on establishing effective partnerships and equipping authorities with the right powers to take effective actions against alcohol related-crime and harms in the night time economy.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support police staff who are (a) abused and (b) injured by people intoxicated with alcohol.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It is absolutely unacceptable for police officers and staff to be assaulted when carrying out their duties, and we are determined to ensure that they have the support and protection they need.
The Government has invested in programmes which offer help directly to officers and staff. This includes £7.5 million to fund the development of the National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS), which was launched in April 2019.
The NPWS has developed evidence-based guidance, advice, tools and resources which can be accessed by forces, as well as individual officers and staff. This helps Chief Constables in their duty to ensure the wellbeing of all officers and staff, by signposting to relevant services and additional support.
However, we want to go further, and have therefore accelerated work to introduce a Police Covenant, to recognise the service and sacrifice of our brave police officers and staff and to deliver the urgent practical support they need. The key areas of focus will be physical protection, health and wellbeing and support for families. On 26 February, we launched a public consultation into the scope and principle of the Covenant. The consultation will run for 8 weeks, closing on 22 April, and will subsequently be put into law as part of the planned Police Powers and Protection Bill.
We have also committed to consult on doubling the maximum sentence for assaults on emergency workers and are working closely with the Ministry of Justice who are leading on this important work.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 264399 on Disclosure and Barring Service, and with reference to page 1 of the letter from the Cabinet Secretary of 10 April 2019 to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Disclosure and Barring Service: progress review if he will place in the Library copies of the analysis provided by his Department's officials.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
3677:
A copy of the requested documents have been provided by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and will be placed in the Library.
3678
The information you requested is being withheld as the data is commercially sensitive. To disclose would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).
3679:
The 2012 FBC set a funding envelope of £537.7m to cover the ICT investment and the running costs of DBS for a five-year period to 2017/18. The changes made in 2014 led to a revised funding envelope of £786m for the whole life cost of the programme that would run the entire DBS programme until the financial year 2018/19. Subject to finalisation of DBS’s 2018/19 financial accounts, we anticipate the final whole of life cost being £873 million, with the largest component of this relating to operating costs to deliver a higher volume of products and services than originally forecast in either of the business cases.