Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women detained in Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre have been deported as of 23 May 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes statistics on immigration detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release (opens in a new tab)’. This includes data on people:
Data on those entering detention, by place of detention, relate to the place of initial detention. An individual who moves from one part of the detention estate to another will not be counted as entering any subsequent place of detention. Last place of detention does not show where an individual spent their time in detention. In some cases, an individual may have spent a period of time detained elsewhere before being moved to their last place of detention.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with HM Passport Office on solutions to the current backlog of applications.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Ahead of unrestricted international travel returning, HM Passport Office prepared extensively to serve an unprecedented number of customers, with 9.5 million British passport applications forecasted throughout 2022.
These preparations have ensured that passport applications can be processed in higher numbers than ever before. Across March and April 2022, HM Passport Office completed the processing of nearly two million applications.
Ministers continue to meet regularly with officials to monitor performance, and to explore further options that will help to ensure that people receive their passports in good time.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with HM Passport Office Durham on additional resources to support the current workforce.
Answered by Kevin Foster
To support the processing of an unprecedented demand of passport applications, Her Majesty’s Passport Office has increased its staffing numbers across the UK, including the Durham office. 500 new staff have joined HM Passport Office since April 2021, with plans for a further 700 to join this year.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase resources in HM Passport Office Durham to improve the speed of processing passport applications.
Answered by Kevin Foster
To support the processing of an unprecedented demand of passport applications, Her Majesty’s Passport Office has increased its staffing numbers across the UK, including the Durham office.
500 new staff have joined HM Passport Office since April 2021, with plans for a further 700 to have joined by the summer.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the online passport application booking system in light of the current backlogs.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Appointments for urgent services are released three weeks in advance, with new appointments available on a daily basis.
These will be booked quickly in busy periods. While Her Majesty’s Passport Office has maximised the appointment capacity at its seven public counters, it continues to explore options to further increase appointment capacity to further support its customers with urgent travel needs.
Around 2 million passport applications were processed in March and April alone, with 98.6% of applications processed within the 10 week standalone time frame.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Ukrainian nationals have had visas revoked before entry to the UK as of 1 April 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on the number of visas granted under the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Schemes: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Information requested not contained within this published data is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how long the average wait for visas applied for under the Homes for Ukraine scheme is as of 1 April 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information on the number of visas granted under the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Schemes: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Information requested not contained within this published data is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many emails to the Ukraine Urgent MP Enquires address were awaiting response as of 1 April 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not capture data specifically covering the number of enquiries to the urgent inbox, but all enquiries to this inbox are dealt with as a priority.