Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to resettle child refugees in (a) the UK and (b) Scotland.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Child refugees and their families are being resettled across the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme and the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme. We continue to work with local authorities and devolved administrations to ensure reception arrangements, accommodation and appropriate care arrangements are in place to meet our commitments.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to meet with Ministers of the Scottish Government.
Answered by Sarah Newton
It is important that the Home Office engages with the Scottish Government, and Ministers will be meeting in the coming months. The department does not however publish the arrangements for such meetings in advance.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to review immigration rules for spouse visas.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Supreme Court endorsed our approach in setting a minimum income threshold for sponsoring a spouse visa in its judgment in MM (Lebanon) & Others on 22 February 2017.
This requirement prevents burdens on the taxpayer and ensures migrant families can integrate into our communities. We are carefully considering what the Court has said in relation to cases involving children and to exceptional cases where the income threshold has not been met.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the taxation levels of front-line police and fire services across the constituent parts of the UK.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Both policing and the fire service are devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Council tax policy in Wales is a matter for the Welsh government. Council tax referendum principles for local authorities in England are set by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and are subject to the approval of the House of Commons. An announcement about principles for 2017/18 will, be made shortly.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of applying different immigration rules to Scotland and other constituent parts of the UK.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Immigration remains a reserved matter and we will consider the needs of the UK as a whole.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support refugees (a) in the UK and (b) elsewhere in Europe.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
All those granted refugee status in the UK are given access to the labour market and benefits, and are encouraged to access organisations that can assist with integration.
The Home Office provides integration loans, which are designed to help new refugees to integrate into UK society by offering support towards housing costs, employment and training.
The Government has prioritised supporting refugees in their region of origin and the countries that host them through aid and development funding and is at the forefront of international efforts to end the Syrian crisis.
We have committed to resettling up to 20,000 individuals under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme and 3,000 individuals under the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme over the lifetime of this Parliament.
In Europe, the UK is a leading Member State contributing both financial and practical support for refugees through the European Asylum Support Office and bilaterally with countries such as France, Greece, and Italy.
This support includes: resources to assist with processing arrivals; £34 million contribution to Greece’s humanitarian response (enabling provision of essential tents, blankets, and sleeping bags); a £10 million Refugee Children Fund for Europe; £1.5 million for humanitarian and research activities in Italy; and naval support for vessels in distress.
The Government accepted an amendment during the passage of the Immigration Act 2016 to bring a specified number of unaccompanied refugee children from Europe to the UK.
Since 10 October, we have transferred over 300 unaccompanied children to the UK from France.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications of the UK leaving the EU on her Departmental responsibilities.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) is working closely with all Government departments to ensure that the full range of opportunities are taken and risks mitigated across every area of Government policy.
A central unit has been established to coordinate EU exit work across the Home Office and act as a central contact for DExEU. Units across the Home Office are also feeding into this work.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to reform the immigration detention estate.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government commissioned an independent review of the welfare of vulnerable individuals in detention by Stephen Shaw. We accepted the broad thrust of Mr Shaw’s recommendations, including the adoption of a wider definition of those at risk, and we have strengthened our policies and processes for dealing with the detention of persons who may be vulnerable.
The Government expect these reforms, and broader changes in legislation, policy and operational approaches, to lead to a reduction in the number of those detained, and the duration of detention before removal, in turn improving the welfare of those detained The immigration detention estate is kept under constant review to make sure we have the right resources in the right places and that we are providing value for money.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications of the UK leaving the EU on her departmental responsibilities.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Teams across the Home Office are assessing the impact of the UK’s exit from the EU on their work to establish future requirements
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to review immigration rules for students.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
As the Home Secretary recently announced, we will shortly be consulting on what more we can do to strengthen the system to support the best institutions – and those that stick to the rules – to attract the best talent.
The consultation will include looking, for the first time, at whether our student immigration rules should be tailored to the quality of the institution.
Interested parties, including businesses and members of the education sector, will have the opportunity to engage with this consultation to help us get these reforms right.