Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with the National Police Chief Councils on the effectiveness of powers to arrest people suspected of driving under the influence of drugs.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Ministers and officials meet with representatives of the NPCC on a regular basis and discuss a wide range of topics.
The police have the power under section 10 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to arrest and detain an individual if they have provided a specimen of breath, blood or urine that exceeds the prescribed drink or drug driving limit or the individual’s ability to drive properly is impaired. How the police decide to use these powers is an operational matter for their discretion.
The Government will continue to support the police to ensure that they have the tools needed to enforce road traffic legislation.
The information requested on how many arrests there were for driving under the influence of drugs in each year since 2018 is not held centrally by the Home Office. Drug driving offences are not among the list of offences for which police forces are currently required to notify the Home Office of data on arrests, charges and outcomes.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many arrests there were for driving under the influence of drugs in each year since 2018.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Ministers and officials meet with representatives of the NPCC on a regular basis and discuss a wide range of topics.
The police have the power under section 10 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to arrest and detain an individual if they have provided a specimen of breath, blood or urine that exceeds the prescribed drink or drug driving limit or the individual’s ability to drive properly is impaired. How the police decide to use these powers is an operational matter for their discretion.
The Government will continue to support the police to ensure that they have the tools needed to enforce road traffic legislation.
The information requested on how many arrests there were for driving under the influence of drugs in each year since 2018 is not held centrally by the Home Office. Drug driving offences are not among the list of offences for which police forces are currently required to notify the Home Office of data on arrests, charges and outcomes.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of time spent by police officers completing paperwork as part of the requirements set out in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is important for the investigation of offences, as well as for ensuring transparency and accountability in policing, that effective records are kept, and data is recorded. But it is vital that these processes are proportionate and do not get in the way of everyday police work.
This Government is committed to tackling unnecessary bureaucracy and will work with police forces to build on the foundation of the Policing Productivity Review, working with the College of Policing to support forces to ensure officers are able to use their time more productively.
The Home Office’s Annual Data Requirement (ADR) is a list of all requests for data made to chief officers of police forces in England and Wales under the Home Secretary’s statutory powers. There is a robust and stringent process underpinning the ADR to review existing requests and consider new or amended requests.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the existing rights for individuals holding British Overseas Citizen status.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
British overseas citizens (BOCs) are subject to UK immigration control, but are eligible for British passports and other consular services.
Many BOCs will have rights, including of residence and travel, that stem from the other nationalities that they hold. BOCs who do not hold, and have not voluntarily lost, any other nationality are able to apply to register as British citizens under section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981. BOCs are also able to apply to register as British citizens after 5 years of living in the UK, and meeting certain residence requirements under section 4(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the roll-out of Electronic Travel Authorisation requirements on (a) processing times for non-UK based passengers transiting through airports in the UK and (b) queuing times.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme was launched to secure our borders and make the UK safer, by enhancing our ability to screen travellers upstream. The scheme will apply to passengers from eligible countries who are transiting the UK. ETAs form part of our long-term plan for a slicker, more efficient border, with a greater number of passengers able to benefit from automation at the border, enabling our highly skilled Border Force officers to focus on those who pose the most harm or are at the most risk.
We continue to engage positively with industry, and support the aviation sector in understanding what ETAs and wider digitisation will mean for passengers.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the roll-out of Electronic Travel Authorisation requirements for non-UK passengers transiting through UK airports on (a) passenger experience and (b) the UK aviation industry.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme was launched to secure our borders and make the UK safer, by enhancing our ability to screen travellers upstream. The scheme will apply to passengers from eligible countries who are transiting the UK. ETAs form part of our long-term plan for a slicker, more efficient border, with a greater number of passengers able to benefit from automation at the border, enabling our highly skilled Border Force officers to focus on those who pose the most harm or are at the most risk.
We continue to engage positively with industry, and support the aviation sector in understanding what ETAs and wider digitisation will mean for passengers.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people hold British Overseas Citizen status.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of people who hold a British Overseas Citizenship status.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his oral statement of 12 March 2024 on Update on foreign national offenders, prisons and probation, in what roles the 400 additional caseworkers were previously working.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The additional caseworkers referenced in the oral statement of Secretary of State for Justice on 12 March 2024 are Home Office staff.
The 400 additional caseworkers are external recruits and were not transferred from other roles.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national offenders who were removed from the UK were imprisoned for (a) sexual offences, (b) homicide and (c) assault in each year since 2019.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The information requested about how many foreign national offenders (FNOs) were removed from the UK following convictions for (a) sexual offences, (b) homicide and (c) assault is not available from published statistics.
The Home Office does publish information on a quarterly bases on FNO returns and this can be found at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Our priority will always be to keep the British public safe. That is why foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them. Between January 2019 and September 2023, more than 16,000 FNOs have been removed from the UK.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national offenders were removed from the UK with more than 12 months remaining on their sentence under the Early Removal Scheme in 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The information requested about how many foreign national offenders (FNO)s removed from the UK with more than 12 months remaining on their sentence under the Early Removal Scheme in 2023 is currently not available from published statistics.
Information on the number of FNOs that were returned from the UK under the Early Removal Scheme is available from Table FNO_09 in Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest data is published to June 2022.