Oral Answers to Questions

John Bercow Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab)]

Has net migration increased or decreased over the last 12 months?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I gently remind the Home Secretary that her answer should be pertinent in the context of tackling bogus colleges.

[Mrs May]

The most up-to-date figures do not cover the last 12 months. What we saw as a result of the last Labour Government’s policies was net migration going up. Dealing with bogus colleges and education providers is part of our way of bringing it down.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Nick Herbert)]

With permission, Mr Speaker, I will take this question together with question 10 on the Order Paper.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. If I am mistaken, I shall be happy to acknowledge it, but I thought that the Minister wished to group this question with questions 9 and 18.

[Nick Herbert]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am happy to group it with question 18 as well, if that is acceptable. [Hon. Members: “And 9, not 10.”] I said 10, then I realised that it has been moved to 9 because of a withdrawal. I apologise.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Immigration (Damian Green)]

Yes, my hon. Friend knows that one of the myriad problems we inherited on the immigration front was the remains of a backlog of half a million asylum cases that had simply disappeared inside a warehouse. We have now got to the end of that process, but he is right: it is absolutely essential not to let any similar-sized backlog build up again—not just for general confidence in the immigration system, but as part of our moral duty to treat anyone who comes to this country and applies for asylum with as much efficiency as we can. The system should work not just for them but for the taxpayer. It is a win-win if we get the asylum system to be more competent than it was.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I feel it is my moral duty to press on so that we get more Back Benchers in.

[Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)]

Some of the most pressurised communities in London are facing the loss of familiar and well-liked safer neighbourhood sergeants. Will the Minister give an assurance that there will be no more reductions in the local leadership of safer neighbourhood teams, or is the model of ward-based safer neighbourhood policing now dead under this Government?