Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much his Department (a) paid in apprenticeship levy fees and (b) spent from its apprenticeship levy funds between September 2021 and August 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Between September 2021 and August 2023 the Home Department has (a) paid £14,547,652 in apprenticeship levy fees, this includes the 10% government top up, and (b) has spent £4,039,846 from apprenticeship levy funds.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) schemes and (b) grants their Department administers that are open for (i) individuals, (ii) organisations and (iii) other groups in Feltham and Heston constituency to apply for as of 10 January 2024.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office conducts its business in a fair, open and transparent manner.
All our contracts are awarded by competition between potential suppliers, unless there are compelling reasons why competition cannot be used.
Where required, contracts in the relevant categories are advertised on Find a Tender Service at https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search. This is the UK e-notification service.
There are no current grant opportunities in scope.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Biometric Residence Permits have been affected by technical issues in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2023 to Question 186690 on Asylum: Interviews, what steps she is taking to monitor (a) progress in the Streamlined Asylum Process and (b) the accuracy of the forecast budget.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The commitment made by the Prime Minister on 13 December 2022 is to clear the backlog of legacy initial asylum decisions relating to claims made before 28 June 2022, by the end of 2023.
We are taking immediate action to speed up asylum processing whilst maintaining the integrity of the system. This includes simplifying guidance, reducing interview length and streamlining processes. The Streamlined Asylum Process plays an important role in achieving this.
We have already doubled our decision makers over the last 2 years. We are continuing to increase this further with large campaign already underway. This will take the headcount of our expected number of decision makers to 2,500 by September 2023.
The aim is to clear the initial decision backlog of asylum legacy cases by the end of 2023.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2023 to Question 186685 on Asylum: Children, if her Department will monitor the number of (a) families and (b) individuals in housed in House in Multiple Occupancy properties.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office will not be placing unaccompanied minors in HMO properties and will continue to monitor the numbers of families and individuals placed in HMO properties in accordance with contractual requirements set out in the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC).
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to answer Question 185811 tabled on 18 May by the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office responded to Question 185811 on 13 June:
Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether houses in multiple occupation (HMO) that house a mixture of asylum seekers and non-asylum seekers will be exempt from HMO registration regulations.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The regulations will temporarily exempt HMO properties from licencing which are acquired by the Home Office service providers to house asylum seekers only. These changes will not compromise standards and all properties will be independently inspected for quality to ensure they continue to meet national housing quality requirements. HMO properties used by the Home Office for asylum accommodation are not used to house people who the Home Office does not have a duty to accommodate.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2023 to Question 176612 on Asylum: Passenger Ships, whether those vessels will be docked in port or moored at sea.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Bibby Stockholm vessel, which is to be used as asylum accommodation at Portland will be docked.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the safeguarding implications of children asylum seekers being housed in homes of multiple occupancy.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) properties will be used mainly for single adults but in some cases for families. Families will not, however, share properties with single male adults. No unaccompanied minors will be placed in an HMO property by the Home Office. The Home Office accommodation contracts set out clear minimum standards for all asylum accommodation. This is to ensure compliance with standards similar to those used in local authority licensing.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182865, how many such reports have been made to the police by accommodation providers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information requested could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.