Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether long-term loss of income and unemployment as a result of the covid-19 outbreak will be considered as exceptional circumstances, in the event that the minimum income and adequate maintenance requirement is not met after 31 October 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.
We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021.
We are carefully considering the impacts of COVID-19 on meeting the Minimum Income Requirement for spouse/partner visa applicants. We are also considering the exceptional circumstances related to the pandemic we will take into account in future for applications made under the family Immigration Rules. We will set out our future policy in updated guidance in due course.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to tackle the backlog of (a) asylum and (b) other applications received by her Department.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Visa demand has significantly increased as travel restrictions relating to the pandemic have eased both in the UK and across the globe.
To tackle this the Home Office are pursuing a wide range of programmes to transform systems and processes across a number of immigration routes, alongside a number of business improvement initiatives to speed up decision making, reduce the time people spend in the system and reduce the numbers who are awaiting an interview were required or a decision.
, In response to the raising number of asylum claims and delays in processing them, we are taking forward our New Plan for Immigration which aims to transform our broken asylum system. This includes almost double the number of decision makers r to c.1,000, plus providing improved training and career progression opportunities to aid retention of staff. This investment in our people will speed up processing times and increase the throughput of asylum decisions.
We are continuing to develop existing and new technology to help build on recent improvements such as digital interviewing and move away from a paper-based system. We are streamlining and digitalising the case working process to enable more effective workflow, appointment booking and decision-making.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Windrush scandal, whether the Government has identified any risks associated with the use of the Biometric Services Gateway system and its potential impact on communities around the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Biometrics Services Gateway (BSG) is a technological solution implemented by the Home Office Biometrics (HOB) Programme to provide a “common front door” into the legacy biometric systems and services.
The BSG facilitates the exchange of data between biometric systems and in doing so, supports a range of biometric business processes, such as visa enrolments, asylum applications and criminal police searches, by routing biometric data between and on behalf of the systems. The BSG 'front door' to HOB services:
The BSG is one component of the HOB technical architecture and only sends data to the biometrics systems; it does not make decisions based on the biometric data.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to grant an extension to the changes made to the minimum income and adequate maintenance requirement for a spouse visa after the 31 October 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.
We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant concessionary adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021. There are, however, no plans to change the minimum income and adequate maintenance requirement at this time.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to change the minimum income and adequate maintenance requirement for the spouse visa in response to the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on income and employment.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Minimum Income Requirement is set at the level which prevents burdens on the taxpayer and promotes integration. We remain committed to those aims.
We recognised the economic impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and made relevant concessionary adjustments in order to support those affected between 1 March 2020 and 31 October 2021. There are, however, no plans to change the minimum income and adequate maintenance requirement at this time.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will list the organisations being consulted on the terms of reference for the Independent Review of Prevent.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.
The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.
Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.
Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.
The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps civil society organisations can take to contribute to the development of the terms of reference for the Independent Review of Prevent.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.
The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.
Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.
Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.
The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Independent Reviewer of Prevent will be appointed.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.
The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.
Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.
Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.
The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timeframe is for the independent review of the Prevent strategy; and when that review is planned to be completed.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.
The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.
Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.
Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.
The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.
Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people (a) applied, (b) were shortlisted and (c) were interviewed for the position of the Independent Reviewer of Prevent.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We welcome the views of any civil society organisation which wants to contribute to the development of the new Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of Prevent. They can contribute by contacting the team which will support the new Independent Reviewer at indpreventreview@homeoffice.gov.uk.
The Review team has approached some of the organisations with which they had been in contact during earlier stages of the Review to invite their comments and which represent a broad range of views on Prevent, including those critical of the current approach. But the views of all organisations are welcome.
Any views provided to the Review Team will be shared with the Independent Reviewer once appointed and before the Terms of Reference are agreed.
Interviews for the role of Independent Reviewer are taking place later this month, following which there will be an announcement in due course. There were 35 applicants for the role; we cannot comment further on an ongoing recruitment process.
The aim is for the Independent Review to be completed by August 2021.