First elected: 18th September 2003
Left House: 30th March 2015 (Retired)
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
These initiatives were driven by Sarah Teather, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Sarah Teather has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
A Bill to protect tenants against retaliatory eviction; to amend the law on notices requiring possession relating to assured shorthold tenancies; and for connected purposes.
The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress. A Bill to amend the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to require the Secretary of State to review levels of asylum support annually; to require him to lay before Parliament a draft up-rating order to increase levels of asylum support in line with changes made to mainstream benefits in years when the general level of prices has increased during the previous 12 month period; to replace support provided by the voucher system under subsections (10) and (11) of section 4 of the Act with a single, cash-based support system; and for connected purposes.
Sarah Teather has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The only sums paid to date by the Treasury Solicitor’s Department are disbursements in the sum of £61,229.59. There are additional disbursements paid by the Ministry of Justice direct.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
By the end of March 2015 we are expecting to have spent over £650 million and will have spent the full £800 million before the end of 2015.
By the end of March 2015 we are expecting to have spent over £650 million and will have spent the full £800 million before the end of 2015.
The UK has provided £1 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to deliver food, safe water, clothes, shelter material and other basic necessities to those people displaced following attacks by Boko Haram.
A further £1 million of UK funding is committed to the Nigerian Government’s “Safe Schools Initiative” to help protect children at school in North East Nigeria and provide schooling to children displaced by the violence. The UK has also contributed £1.7 million to the UN’s and EU’s relief efforts.
The UK is in regular dialogue with the Government of Nigeria about support to victims of Boko Haram. This includes protection for humanitarian workers in northern Nigeria.
The UK has provided £1 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to deliver food, safe water, clothes, shelter material and other basic necessities to those people displaced following attacks by Boko Haram.
A further £1 million of UK funding is committed to the Nigerian Government’s “Safe Schools Initiative” to help protect children at school in North East Nigeria and provide schooling to children displaced by the violence. The UK has also contributed £1.7 million to the UN’s and EU’s relief efforts.
The information requested is not readily available and can only be be provided at a disproportionate cost.
The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The following information on number of households capped (latest data March 2014) is available by Local Authority at :
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-march-2014
Data is available on number of households capped (current and cumulative), amount capped, number of dependents and household type.
Details on length of time capped is not available.
Local authorities are required to submit their claims for funding for Discretionary Housing Payments by 30 April following the end of the financial year.
Until the returns have been received from each authority, we are not in a position to say how much of this funding has been unused.
At the end of the 2012/13 year, of the £67,906,916 made available by central Government towards Discretionary Housing Payments, £12,453,471 (18.34%) was unspent.
As of 31 December 2014 there were 26,801,935 valid European Health Insurance Cards issued to people ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, in circulation.
NHS treatment in primary care (which in this context includes the standard childhood immunisations) is currently exempt from charging under the National Health Services (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations (2011). In addition, treatment for infectious diseases listed in Schedule 1 of the Regulations is also exempt from charging.
Section 39 of the Immigration Act 2014 concerns a change in the definition of ordinary residence within the context of National Health Services charging provisions for non-EEA nationals who are subject to immigration control. Some NHS services are only free-of-charge to those people who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom. Primary care services are currently free-of-charge, regardless of ordinarily resident status.
The introduction of section 39 will affect neither the exemptions in primary care nor the exemptions for infectious diseases.
At Nigeria’s UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in October 2013, the UK called on the Nigerian government to fully investigate reports of extra judicial killings and torture by the Nigerian security forces, to bring to justice those responsible and to establish a human rights monitoring system.
We continue to raise these and other human rights concerns with the Nigerian authorities, as highlighted at the UPR, such as the death penalty and LGBT rights.
When providing military assistance to another nation, the Ministry of Defence is required under the UK Government’s Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) Human Rights Guidance to consider the possibility of that assistance directly or significantly contributing to a violation of human rights and to identify measures that mitigate this risk. We continue to follow these stringent guidelines. The UK Government has made clear to the Nigerian authorities at all levels that, whilst we support Nigeria’s fight against terrorism, we do not condone human rights violations.
Presidential and gubernatorial Elections are due to take place in Nigeria on 14 and 28 February. We continue to call on all leaders and political parties to use their influence to ensure that elections are credible, transparent and free from violence. Approximately 50 personnel from the UK Missions in Abuja and Lagos also plan to observe in 14 States, including the Abuja Federal Capital Territory, for election polls on both 14 and 28 February. We are also planning to contribute 6 Local Short Term Observers to the European Union Election Observation Mission.
I discussed the issue of Syrian refugees with the Lebanese Prime Minister and the Speaker for Parliament when I visited Lebanon in December. I paid tribute to Lebanon’s generosity towards over 1.1 million registered refugees, and made clear that the UK’s support for Lebanon, which has now reached around £160 million since the start of the Syria crisis, will continue. Following the announcement of new border regulations by the Lebanese authorities, our Ambassador in Lebanon, alongside EU partners, reiterated to the Lebanese Prime Minister the international community’s concern that the new border regulations should provide adequately for the most vulnerable humanitarian cases. UK officials have also shared our concerns about the situation with the Lebanon Country Director of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
The UK Government believes that humanitarian aid and actively seeking to end the conflict in Syria are the most effective ways for the UK to help the majority of refugees, rather than increasing resettlement. That is why the UK has donated £700 million to support refugees in the region, making us the second largest bilateral donor after the USA. We have made our position on this clear in relevant discussions with other EU Member States. EU Member States have responded to the crisis in different ways; it is right that the international community should consider all available means to relieve the suffering of the Syrian people.
The Government has committed to working with the London Borough of Barnet to look at their proposals for the regeneration of Brent Cross. It is a matter for Barnet Council to discuss their plans with relevant stakeholders including Brent Council.
The provision of internet access in immigration removal centres helps detainees to remain in contact with family, friends and legal representatives and to prepare for removal. It is a contractual requirement that all immigration removal centres provide detainees with reasonable and regulated access to the
internet and IT facilities. It is important that detainees can access legitimate websites including news, education, employment and legal sites, and we are taking steps to standardise internet access across the detention estate. This includes consultation with the voluntary sector on website access and the development of a new Detention Services Order to set out requirements for access and monitoring.
Detaining and removing people with no right to be in the country, with dignity and respect, is an essential part of effective immigration controls.
The future requirements of the detention estate, including its capacity and location, is kept under constant review.
Application volumes, issue and refusal rates of visa applications from all nationalities are monitored on an ongoing basis.
All visa applications made by Syrian nationals are considered on a case by case basis, on their individual merits, and in accordance with the Immigration Rules.
As of 31 December 2014, 143 people were relocated to the UK under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme, 34 of whom were principal applicants (i.e. head of family) and 109 their dependents.
This is the latest publicly available figure, as numbers are released as part of the Home Office official statistics each quarter. The number of arrivals under the scheme up to the end of March 2015 will be published on 21 May.
An analysis of asylum claims made by Syrian nationals, in the eighteen month period ending November 2014, showed some Syrian asylum claimants were found to have abused the UK’s transit without visa provisions using a US issued visa. Applicants used their US visas to arrive in the UK to claim asylum rather than to transit to an onward destination as the provisions intend. The change made by HC1116 will stop this abuse.
Detention plays a key role in maintaining an effective immigration control and protecting our borders. We keep periods of detention to a minimum, consistent
with the need to detain in order to remove from the UK those with no right to be here and who do not leave voluntarily.
There are no plans to review the use of detention overall but on 9 February the Home Secretary announced that Stephen Shaw, the former Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, is to lead an independent review of the policies and procedures relating to the welfare of immigration detainees.
As of 31 December 2014, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had referred 260 people for consideration under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons
Relocation (VPR) scheme. This data has not previously been published, is based on management information only, and has not therefore been subject to the detailed checks that apply to National Statistics publications.
In the same period to 31 December, as already published through the quarterly release of Home Office statistics, 143 people had arrived in the UK under the VPR scheme.
Families removed from the UK via Cedars pre-departure accommodation are provided with an individual returns support package which can include financial assistance, based on need.
The total number of main applicants supported under Section 4 is now well below the peak of 12,019 in the Quarter 3 of 2009, standing at 3,566 in the Quarter 3 of 2014.
The number of main asylum claimants receiving Section 4 support for more than two, four and six years is set out in the table below.
Duration | Number of people |
More than 2 years and up to 4 years | 1,405 |
More than 4 years and up to 6 years | 869 |
More than 6 years | 329 |
I refer my honourable Friend to the Written Ministerial Statement of the Home Secretary on 10 February 2015. Reference HCWS274.
The Home Office does not return Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) whose claims have been refused, unless adequate reception arrangements are in place in the country to which the child is to be returned. If adequate
reception arrangements are absent, most unaccompanied children are granted UASC Leave (formally known as UASC discretionary leave) which usually lasts until their 18th birthday.
When a child passes the age of 18 and UASC Leave expires, they are no longer considered to be a UASC and are therefore required to take steps to voluntarily return or seek further leave to remain. If the individual does not seek to
regularise their stay through further applications or leave is not granted they may be removed in accordance with the Immigration Rules and Published Home Office policy should they fail to leave voluntarily.The table below outlines the number of individuals removed in each of the last five years who had previously been granted discretionary leave to remain as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child but has since passed the age of 18 and had
not regularised their leave or left the UK voluntarily.
Year | Total |
2009 | 3 |
2010 | 43 |
2011 | 119 |
2012 | 57 |
2013 | 88 |
2014 | 40 |
Grand Total | 350 |
According to internal management information,138 people applied for an administrative review under paragraph 34M of Part 1 of the Immigration Rules between 20 October 2014 and 31 December 2014.
The results of the audit of Rule 35 processes are being considered at present. We will consider how best to make them available in due course.
The Home Office does not record bail applications in a reportable format that shows the schedule under which each application was submitted. In order to extract this data each applicant’s Home Office file would need to be
interrogated to locate the paper copy of the bail application.
Therefore, to provide the data as requested would incur disproportionate cost.
There were 905 fresh claims, from main applicants, for asylum in the United Kingdom in 2009, 1,621 in 2010, 969 in 2011, 849 in 2012 and 866 in 2013 (provisional figure). This data can be found at as_01 and as_01_q at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.
2014 fresh claims data will be released on 26 February 2015.
The changes are designed to speed up decision-making on further submissions, enabling us to grant protection more quickly to those who need it and remove those who have no right to be here.
Centralising the process will allow us to make decisions within five working days in most cases. The new process applies only to failed asylum seekers whose claims have already been refused, and their appeal rights exhausted.
There have been extensive internal discussions with policy experts, legal advisers and operational staff during the development of this policy. We believe that early public consultation would have led to a rush of further
submissions, but we notified the National Asylum Stakeholder Forum in advance of the changes. There is already a nationwide requirement for those who claimed asylum before March 2007 to lodge further submissions in Liverpool.
Travel costs will not be reimbursed. In exceptional cases where a person is genuinely unable to travel to Liverpool, for example due to a disability or severe illness, there is provision to accept further submissions by post.
The table below shows the removals and voluntary departures of people under 18 by destination for the 12 month period to September 2014, the latest date for which figures have been published.
| Removals and voluntary departures, people aged under 18, by destination | ||||
| 12 months to year ending September 2014 | Destination: Country of nationality | Destination: Other | Total | |
| Total enforced removals | 60 | 30 | 90 | |
| Total refused entry at port and subsequently departed | 370 | 749 | 1,119 | |
| Total voluntary departures | 1,776 | 555 | 2,331 | |
These figures are provisional and may subsequently differ when the tables are revised, due to data cleansing and data matching exercises that take place after the extracts are taken.
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of persons removed or departed voluntarily from the UK within Immigration Statistics. The data on removals and voluntary departures are readily available
in the latest release, Immigration Statistics: July – September 2014, from the GOV.UK website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.
The Government is deeply concerned about the crisis in Syria, the suffering and hardship it is causing for millions of displaced Syrians in the region, and the strain it is placing on their host countries. Given the scale of the crisis,
we believe the most effective way to ensure the UK’s help has the greatest impact for displaced people and their host countries is through substantial humanitarian aid and actively seeking an end to the conflict so that refugees
can return to their homes and livelihoods safely. We have committed £700 million in response to the crisis, making us the second largest bilateral donor after the USA, and UK taxpayers' money is helping to support hundreds of
thousands of displaced people in the region, providing food, healthcare and essential supplies. Compared with aid, resettlement can only ever help a minority of those in need.
We launched the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme to complement our humanitarian aid efforts by offering protection in the UK to some of the most vulnerable refugees, who cannot be supported effectively in
the region. The scheme is based on need rather than fulfilling a quota, but we have said that we expect it to help several hundred people over three years, and we remain on track to deliver that commitment. We therefore have no current plans to change the way the scheme operates. However, we continue to monitor the situation in Syria and the surrounding region and work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify the most
vulnerable people displaced by the conflict to ensure that the scheme remains responsive to need.
The Home Office does not have responsibility for prisons so requests for filming would be made to the Ministry of Justice.We do not have a central record of how many times broadcasters have requested to film immigration removal centres or how many times those requests have been granted.
The Home Office has a contract with Tascor in respect of the transfer of immigration detainees between immigration removal centres. This is based on a rate per mile, the detail of which is commercially confidential.
The amounts paid by the Home Office in compensation following claims for unlawful detention were as follows:
2011-12 £4.5 million
2012-13 £5.0 million
2013-14 £4.8 million
It is not possible to provide similar information for earlier periods, as data are not held in the appropriate format and to extract them would incur disproportionate cost.
The number of Syrian nationals transferred to Bulgaria, Greece and Italy under the Dublin Convention and the later Dublin II Regulations, because those States are responsible for examining their asylum claims, is shown in the
table below:
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
Bulgaria | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | * |
Greece | * | * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Italy | 0 | 0 | * | * | 12 |
*represents a figure below 5.
The figures quoted have been derived from management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols.
Capacity of the detention estate is kept under rolling review. Decisions will continue to be made according to operational priorities.
In 2013/14 the total cost of running the Immigration Detention Estate was £164.4m. This includes all costs, including running costs, rent, depreciation and other costs, for all Immigration Removal Centres, Short Term Holding Facilities
and amounts paid for spaces in the main prisons estate.
The information requested cannot be provided without collation and examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.
Of the people granted Humanitarian Protection under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme up to the end of June 2014, 11 are Principal Applicants and 39 are dependant family members. Of these people 14 have been assessed as having serious medical needs.
The Home Office publishes statistics on the number of people granted Humanitarian Protection in the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons
Relocation scheme in Table as_19 (Asylum data table Volume 4) of the quarterly Immigration Statistics release.
A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics April – June 2014, is available from:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.
In the year ending June 2014, a total of 50 people were granted Humanitarian Protection under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme.
As at 14 October 2014 there were 374 detainees held in prison establishments solely under immigration powers.
The information provided above is based on management information only and has not been subject to the detailed checks that apply for National Statistics publications. These figures are provisional and are subject to change.
Under section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981, the Secretary of State is empowered to deprive, by order, any person of any form of British
nationality, subject to satisfying the relevant criteria. The Secretary of State may deprive somebody of their British citizenship if satisfied that such deprivation is conducive to the public good or the individual obtained British citizenship by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of a material fact. Since April 2014, seven people have been deprived of their citizenship on the grounds that it was either conducive to the public good to do so, or that the individual concerned obtained their British citizenship by means of fraud, false representation or concealment of a material fact. No cases have been deprived under subsection (4A) of that section.
Please note: this information has been provided from local management information and is not a national statistic. As such, it should be treated as
provisional and therefore subject to change.