Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times there have been no police or immigration officials at the ferry port in Hull checking people leaving the UK in the last year.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The requested information has not been released as it is Border Force policy
not to release port-specific staff numbers on grounds of national security.
Exit checks were abolished by the last government. This Government is committed
to reintroducing exit checks by April 2015 on scheduled commercial
international air, sea and rail routes.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been stopped from leaving the UK by officials at the ferry port in Hull in the last year.
Answered by James Brokenshire
To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border Her Majesty’s Government does not comment on port specific statistics.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been stopped from leaving the UK by officials at the ferry port in Dover in the last year.
Answered by James Brokenshire
To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border Her Majesty’s Government does not comment on port specific statistics.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times there have been no police or immigration officials at the ferry port in Portsmouth checking people leaving the UK in the last year.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The requested information has not been released as it is Border Force policy
not to release port-specific staff numbers on grounds of national security.
Exit checks were abolished by the last government. This Government is committed
to reintroducing exit checks by April 2015 on scheduled commercial
international air, sea and rail routes.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign students at schools and colleges that have lost their right to sponsor such students were removed from the UK in each of the last four years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Immigration removal statistics do not capture the category in which those
removed originally came to the UK. Since 2010, UK Visas and Immigration have
removed more than 860 education institutions from the register of those
licensed to recruit international students to the UK. Students whose sponsors’
licence has been revoked must find a new licensed sponsor or leave the UK
within 60 days of notification.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many schools and colleges that have had their right to sponsor overseas students removed have been subject to criminal proceedings in each of the last four years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested is not recorded in this way.
Immigration Enforcement prosecutes individuals rather than schools
and companies who have had their right to sponsor overseas students
removed.
It would be a disproportionate cost to disaggregate information on the number
of individuals prosecuted for this offence from all of those prosecuted.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-EU students who were given visas to study in the UK failed to leave the UK after their studies had ended in each of the last four years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
In 2012, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) changed its methodology to
provide a better indicator of how many people leaving the UK first came here as
students. The ONS uses this data to estimate that in the year to September
2014, 133,000 non-EU students came to the UK to study for more than 12 months
while only 48,000 left - a difference of 85,000. This is partly because
students are able to extend their Tier 4 visa or switch into another
immigration route in-country, and so remain in the UK. Therefore student
emigration or the lack of it is a key driver of overall net migration.
The Immigration Act 2014 has provided new powers to implement exit checks,
which the last Labour government scrapped in 1998. The data collected by exit
checks will provide the most comprehensive picture we have ever had of whether
those who enter the UK leave when they are supposed to. The Act will also stop
migrants using public services to which they are not entitled, reduce the factors which
encourage people to come to the UK and make it easier to remove people who
should not be here.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will investigate options for helping Portsmouth City Council to purchase the land at the St James' Hospital site in Milton.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The St James's Hospital site in Milton is owned by NHS Property Services and has been identified as surplus. The Homes and Communities Agency are working with Portsmouth City Council and NHS Property Services to identify options for the future of this site that will deliver benefits to the local community.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people who are currently waiting for appeals relating to asylum applications have been waiting over (a) one year and (b) two years.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The First-tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber) hears appeals against decisions to refuse a claim for asylum. The Upper Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber) hears appeals on a point of law against a First-tier Tribunal decision.
(a) As of 9 February 2015 case management records show there are 211 outstanding asylum appeals in the First-tier Tribunal and 121 outstanding asylum appeals in the Upper Tribunal that were received at least one year ago.
(b) Of these records, 55 First-tier Tribunal appeals and 83 Upper Tribunal appeals were received at least two years ago.
Only a tiny percentage of cases take more than a year, and when they do it is because they raise complex issues. Official statistics published on the 11 December 2014, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2014 show that the average time taken to dispose of an asylum appeal within the First-tier Tribunal was 12 weeks between July and September 2014.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current average waiting time is for her Department to process applications for people who are seeking British nationality.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The average processing time for applications for British citizenship is 70 days from receipt of application to decision.
These figures are for the year 1 October 2013 – 30 September 2014, in line with the latest published data.
This compares with a peak average waiting time of 100 days from 1 October 2008 – 30 September 2009.