Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, Inspection of the UK Border Agency's handling of legacy asylum and migration cases, published in November 2012, what steps have been taken in response to recommendation 1 of that report.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Older Live Cases Unit routinely and regularly matches asylum and migration
legacy cases against the Police National Computer (PNC) and Warnings Index (WI)
records, until the point at which cases are finally concluded. The checks are
undertaken on a rolling three monthly basis. Results are recorded on a bespoke
database which informs the decision making process within the Older Live Cases
Unit.
Compliance with the recommendation was acknowledged by the Independent Chief
Inspector of Borders and Immigration in his report, An investigation into the
progress made on legacy asylum and migration cases January – March 2013,
published in June 2013, where he stated, "security checks had been completed
in each of the cases we sampled (144), indicating that the Agency had
implemented our earlier recommendation to routinely and regularly
match legacy cases against the PNC and WI until finally concluded."
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are currently detained for immigration purposes at HM Prison The Verne.
Answered by James Brokenshire
As at 3 June 2014 there were 790 detainees held in prison establishments solely under immigration powers, of whom 174 were held in HMP The Verne.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the suitability of HM Prison The Verne for detaining individuals for immigration purposes.
Answered by James Brokenshire
HMP The Verne has been assessed for detaining individuals for immigration purposes in terms of its size, location, facilities and level of security.
Alterations are being carried out to make it suitable for use as an Immigration Removal Centre including provision of facilities for detainees and their
visitors. Once formally re-roled it will be used to assist removal of those who have no right to remain in the UK.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are currently being held in prisons solely under immigration powers.
Answered by James Brokenshire
As at 3 June 2014 there were 790 detainees held in prison establishments solely under immigration powers, of whom 174 were held in HMP The Verne.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons she will no longer fund the detention element of the Choices service from 1 April 2014; whether an alternative assisted voluntary returns programme will be made available to immigration detainees; and what assessment she has made of the potential effects of this decision on the number of (a) assisted voluntary returns and (b) enforced removals.
Answered by James Brokenshire
An assessment of the impact of this change is in train and the range of
possible alternatives is complex. A full written response on the issue will be
provided to the Member in due course, and the letter placed in the House
Library.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many immigration detainees left the UK through the assisted voluntary returns programmes in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
For the last five years, the numbers of detainees who have left the UK annually
through AVR programmes are as follows:
| Year | Detainees departing through AVR |
| 2009 | 585 |
| 2010 | 824 |
| 2011 | 848 |
| 2012 | 1150 |
| 2013 | 2081 |
The figures provided are sourced from a Home Office management information
system which is not quality assured under National Statistics protocols and is
subject to change due to internal data quality checking. Figures provided from
this source do not constitute part of National Statistics and should be treated
as provisional.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the National Audit Office Report, COMPASS contracts for the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers, published in January 2014, what steps she has taken in response to recommendations f, g and h in that report.
Answered by James Brokenshire
With reference to the National Audit Office Report, COMPASS contracts for the
provision of accommodation for asylum seekers, the Home Department has
undertaken the following steps in response to recommendations F, G and H in the
report:
F. The Department should work with providers to ensure that they review the
arrangements for property maintenance, including the process for managing
properties between occupants, and look at ways to reduce the backlog.
The Department has completed a review of the process used by COMPASS providers
to manage property standards and is working closely with all providers to
improve the standard of accommodation. Joint housing inspections are now
routinely undertaken by the providers' housing officers and the Department's
contract compliance teams. Our priority is achieving plans that ensure
providers respond more quickly to property defects and to increase
accommodation quality over the lifetime of the contract.
G. The Department should work with providers to ensure that they audit the
training of housing officer staff, with particular regard to understanding
service users' needs, and ensure that arrangements for accessing properties are
being applied consistently.
Providers are required by contract to ensure that their staff are adequately
trained in customer care and cultural awareness and that they conduct
themselves in a polite, sensitive and professional manner. Providers have
committed to improving in this area of their service delivery and the
Department will continue to monitor this closely.
H. The Department should work with providers to ensure that they develop
appropriate mechanisms to capture feedback from service users about their
experiences living in asylum accommodation – for example customer satisfaction
surveys or focus groups.
Customer satisfaction surveys and focus groups do not currently form part of
the COMPASS contract. However, the Department recognises the benefits of
having an independent measure of customer satisfaction and is committed to
implementing this for COMPASS Services. Consultation with providers has started
and a process for capturing customer satisfaction is currently being piloted.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 16W, on asylum: deportation, to which countries the enforced removals of adults previously classified as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were made in each such year.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The following table shows the number of enforced removals of adultswho were previously classified as Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) for the period Jan 2009 to Dec 2013.
Destination | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | Grand Total |
Taiwan (Republic of China) | 2 | 8 | 30 | 18 | 22 | 80 |
Ghana | 5 | 16 | 24 | 7 | 11 | 63 |
Pakistan | 6 | 17 | 13 | 7 | 4 | 47 |
India | 0 | 3 | 17 | 13 | 13 | 46 |
China | 5 | 6 | 15 | 6 | 10 | 42 |
Italy | 4 | 7 | 17 | 6 | 8 | 42 |
Kenya | 1 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 31 |
Malaysia | 6 | 3 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 25 |
United Arab Emirates | 2 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 21 |
Brazil | 0 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 18 |
New Zealand | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 15 |
Ukraine | 1 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 14 |
Gambia | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
Iran (Islamic Republic of) | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
Germany | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
Greece | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
Mongolia | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
South Africa | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
Albania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Nigeria | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Uganda | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Destination field is blank | 4 | 3 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 25 |
Grand Total | 38 | 91 | 183 | 87 | 110 | 509 |
Footnote:
Destinations do not always equate to final destinations.
Data relates to people that were over 18 at time of departures.
Figures provided cover the calendar years 1 January to 31 December.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the number of individuals held at HM Prison The Verne solely for immigration purposes as part of the quarterly immigration statistics.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Published figures on people detained in the United Kingdom solely under
Immigration Act powers include those held in short term holding facilities, pre
departure accommodation and immigration removal centres. However, figures
exclude those held in police cells, Prison Service establishments, short term
holding rooms at ports and airports (for less than 24 hours), and those
recorded as detained under both criminal and immigration powers and their
dependants.
The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of
people detained in the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within
Immigration Statistics: October - December 2013, from the GOV.UK website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-stati
stics-quarterly-release.
The provisional date for HMP The Verne to become an
Immigration Removal Centre is September 2014 and following that change specific
figures for the Verne would be regularly published alongside those for other
Immigration Removal Centres.
Asked by: Sarah Teather (Liberal Democrat - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied migrant children have been forcibly removed to another country in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
No unaccompanied child under the age of 18 can be forcibly removed from the UK
unless adequate care and reception arrangements are in place in their country
of origin. The difficulty of setting up suitable reception arrangements has
meant that, with the exception of transfers to other European Union countries
under the *Dublin Regulations, the Home Office does not routinely enforce the
return of unaccompanied children to any country. The majority of unaccompanied
children whose asylum claims are rejected are granted temporary leave which is
reviewed when they reach 17½ years of age. We believe that the vast majority of
enforced returns of unaccompanied children undertaken between 2006 and 2010
were transfers under the Dublin Regulations.
Table 1: Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children removals 2009 to 2013
Date of Removal | Total |
2009 | 31 |
2010 | 12 |
2011 | 2 |
2012 | 6 |
2013 | 2 |
Grand Total | 53 |
‘Migrant children' have been interpreted as unaccompanied asylum seeking
children (UASC) in answering this question.
* The Dublin Regulation EC No. 343/2003 is a binding measure of European
Community law to determine which State should be responsible for examining an
application for asylum made within the EU territory.