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Written Question
Police: Wiltshire
Wednesday 20th July 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers have been recruited in Wiltshire since 2019; and what steps she has taken to reduce crime in (a) rural areas and (b) Wiltshire.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

We are recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by March 2023, the biggest recruitment drive in decades.

As at 31 March 2022, Wiltshire Police had a total headcount of 1,152 police officers. 261 new officers have been recruited in total in Wiltshire since November 2019, equating to 111 additional officers, after replacing officers who retire or leave the force.

We are also taking steps to address issues that we know affect rural communities, including Wiltshire. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act empowers and equips the police and courts with the powers they need to combat hare coursing. The Government is also providing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit.


Written Question
Passports: Applications
Wednesday 20th July 2022

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to clear the passport application backlog.

Answered by Kevin Foster

Her Majesty’s Passport Office has added 850 staff since April 2021. This has helped to ensure that more passport applications are being processed than ever before. Between March and May, 98.5% of UK applications processed were completed within ten weeks.

Processing capacity will increase further, with an additional 350 staff arriving within the summer.


Written Question
Refugees
Thursday 7th December 2017

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to review the effectiveness of integration systems for refugees.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

We are working towards achieving more integrated communities and creating the conditions for everyone to live and work successfully alongside each other; and in the New Year the Government will publish an integration strategy.

The Vulnerable Persons and Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Schemes are being evaluated through a programme of quantitative data work and qualitative research with refugees and key delivery partners. A key focus of this work is examining integration progress according to a range of key measures and what can be done to improve this.


Written Question
Registration of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships: Cohabitation
Monday 4th December 2017

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to review the categories for registering a death of an unmarried partner to include partner and not simply disposing of the body.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The introduction of additional qualified informants will be progressed alongside wider Death Certification Reform under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.


Written Question
Animal Experiments: Cosmetics
Tuesday 21st November 2017

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to encourage other countries to ban cosmetics animal testing and the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.

Answered by Ben Wallace

The testing of cosmetics and their ingredients on animals in the UK has been banned since 1998 and the UK has been instrumental in introducing this ban across the European Union and beyond.

The Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues to support China to bring an end to unnecessary cosmetics testing on animals, advising on a science based approach for non-animal alternative human safety testing.


Written Question
Refugees: Children
Wednesday 8th March 2017

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to help close smuggler routes into the UK after the closure of the Dubs scheme.

Answered by Robert Goodwill

Our work to close people smuggling routes to the UK is delivered by the Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce. The Taskforce is comprised of officers from the National Crime Agency, Border Force, Immigration Enforcement and the Crown Prosecution Service. It is working closely with law enforcement agencies in 17 source and transit countries to disrupt the organised crime groups that facilitate people smuggling. This work involves intelligence sharing, conducting joint criminal investigations and the provision of capacity building.


Written Question
Refugees: Children
Wednesday 8th March 2017

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many local authorities were consulted ahead of the decision to close the Dubs scheme.

Answered by Robert Goodwill

The Government consulted with all local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales before agreeing the specified number of unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children it would transfer to the UK.


Written Question
Offensive Weapons: Sales
Monday 27th February 2017

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to control the sale of knives and other prohibited bladed items online.

Answered by Sarah Newton

There are strict laws on the sales and marketing of knives which apply whether a knife is sold online or in-store. In addition, selling knives to under 18s (with the exception of folding pocket knives with a cutting edge not exceeding 3 inches) is a criminal offence which carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison. It is also an offence to manufacture, import or sell any item listed on the prohibited offensive weapons list.

The Government continues to work with the police and partners, including retailers to ensure we have strong controls in place to prevent sales of knives to under 18s. In March 2016 we agreed a set of commitments with major retailers to prevent the underage sales of knives more generally in their stores and online. The commitments include a requirement to have robust measures in place to ensure age verification for sales, in-store and online.


Written Question
Refugees: Eritrea
Thursday 12th January 2017

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons Eritrean minors have been excluded from her Department's guidance for enacting the Dubs amendment in France.

Answered by Robert Goodwill

In 2016, we welcomed over 900 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to the UK, including more than 750 from France as part of the UK’s support for the Calais camp clearance - almost half of the unaccompanied children who were in the camp at the time of the clearance. Approximately 200 of these children met the criteria for section 67 of the Immigration Act

In France, we considered those aged 12 and under of any nationality, children referred to us by the French authorities as being at a high risk of sexual exploitation of any nationality, and those nationalities most likely to qualify for refugee status in the UK, aged 15 and below.

The nationality criteria were based on the reasonable likelihood of the children qualifying for refugee status and achieving long-term stability. Eritrean children over the age of 15 do not qualify because the nationality criterion is based on nationalities with a first instance asylum grant rate of 75 per cent or higher in the year to June 2016. Those nationalities are Syrian and Sudanese.


Written Question
Refugees: Children
Thursday 12th January 2017

Asked by: Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many child refugees have been accepted for transfer to the UK under the (a) Dublin III Regulations and (b) Dubs amendment.

Answered by Robert Goodwill

In 2016, we welcomed over 900 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to the UK, including more than 750 from France as part of the UK’s support for the Calais camp clearance - almost half of the unaccompanied children who were in the camp at the time of the clearance. Approximately 200 of these children met the criteria for section 67 of the Immigration Act

In France, we considered those aged 12 and under of any nationality, children referred to us by the French authorities as being at a high risk of sexual exploitation of any nationality, and those nationalities most likely to qualify for refugee status in the UK, aged 15 and below.

The nationality criteria were based on the reasonable likelihood of the children qualifying for refugee status and achieving long-term stability. Eritrean children over the age of 15 do not qualify because the nationality criterion is based on nationalities with a first instance asylum grant rate of 75 per cent or higher in the year to June 2016. Those nationalities are Syrian and Sudanese.