Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many covert human intelligence sources under the age of 18 have been notified to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner since January 2019.
Answered by James Brokenshire
For under 18s, the most recent available data published by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner reported that 17 juvenile covert human intelligence source authorisations were approved across 11 public authorities during the four-year period between January 2015 to the end of 2018. Data for the period beyond the end of 2018 has not been published. Information is not collated on vulnerable adults.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many covert human intelligence sources identified as vulnerable have been notified to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
For under 18s, the most recent available data published by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner reported that 17 juvenile covert human intelligence source authorisations were approved across 11 public authorities during the four-year period between January 2015 to the end of 2018. Data for the period beyond the end of 2018 has yet been published. Information is not collated on vulnerable adults.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to consult on a new resettlement scheme for unaccompanied minors.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Protecting vulnerable children is a key priority for the Government. In 2019, the UK received more asylum applications from unaccompanied children than any country in the EU and accounted for approximately 20% of all reported UASC claims made in the UK and the 27 EU Member States.
We have had significant numbers of children crossing the Channel on small boats and this is in addition to many other unaccompanied children who are currently being cared for in the UK. The latest Department for Education statistics confirm that there are over 5,000 UASC in English local authorities alone – a 146% increase from 2014. This has placed significant pressure on local authorities and it is important that we focus on ensuring that we can care of those who are already here before we agree to taking more children.
In July the Government announced it had successfully completed the transfer of 480 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from Greece, France and Italy under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 – known as the ‘Dubs’ scheme. Parliament was clear this was a one-off scheme which is now complete.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the November 2020 document entitled EU Settlement Scheme – Home Office Looked After Children and Care Leavers Survey 2020, if she will publish the dataset and methodology for that survey; and whether she plans to work with local authorities and other partners to increase the application rate of vulnerable children to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office intends to publish the dataset underpinning the Home Office Looked After Children and Care Leavers Survey 2020 publication in due course. The methodology and data processing steps will be described in notes accompanying this dataset.
The Home Office is providing extensive support to local authorities and Health and Social Care Trusts in light of their statutory responsibilities for this cohort. This is to ensure these children and young people, like other vulnerable groups, get UK immigration status under the EU Settlement Scheme, and the secure evidence of this status which the scheme provides.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the guidance that has been issued to youth offending teams and prison governors on how to assist children to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The EU Settlement Scheme guidance published on gov.uk applies to all who may apply under the scheme, including young offenders. The Home Office is working with the Ministry of Justice, HM Prison and Probation Service and the Devolved Administrations to raise awareness of the scheme and the guidance.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to expand the application of the Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Act 2020 to EU member states after 21 December 2020; what the timescale is for expanding the application of that legislation; what step she is taking to ensure that UK authorities have the power to arrest based on Interpol Red Notices issued by EU member states after 31 December 2020.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Act 2020 (‘The Act’) provides UK law enforcement agencies with the power of arrest on an international arrest alert (typically in the form of an Interpol Notice) which has been certified by the National Crime Agency. The Act was amended at Third Reading in the House of Commons on 8 September to add EU Member States to the Schedule of countries within scope of this power.
The Act will be commenced at the end of the Transition Period and its provisions were drafted to allow commencement for the EU Member States only should it prove to be necessary and not if there is an agreement which provides for the continuation of a warrant-based system after 31 December.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current average response time is for written enquiries on immigration queries from hon Members' offices, by region and month first contacted.
Answered by Kevin Foster
UK Visas and Immigration work to a target of responding to 95% of Ministerial correspondence within 20 working days.
Performance has been impacted by an increase in the volume of correspondence received, alongside the need for Ministers and officials to instigate a remote process for drafting and signing correspondence during the period of COVID-19 restrictions. An action plan is currently in place to clear backlogs and drive up performance.
The latest published data on UKVI performance against the service standard is held at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-august-2020 and this includes data from quarter 2 - 2017 up to and including the end of quarter 2-2020/21. We are proposing the release of data for quarter 3, in due course.
We do not publish average response times for correspondence nor do we record correspondence data by region.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer of 30 June 2020 to Question 63333 on Immigrants: Biometrics, under which statutory authority are finger prints collected; within what radius of the juxtaposed controls are fingerprints collected; and how many people have been finger printed since 15 May 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
There are various powers to fingerprint illegal migrants, but Border Force collect prints under Section 141 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
This legislation is extended to Coquelles within the Channel Tunnel (International Arrangements) Order 1993 (SI 1993/1813).
The legislation is extended to Calais/Dunkerque within the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (Juxtaposed Controls) Order 2003.
Location | Applicable articles |
Coquelles (Eurotunnel) | Articles 8, 9, 10 and 34 of the Sangatte Protocol |
Calais and Dunkerque sea ports | Articles 3, 5 and 15(2) of the Le Touquet Treaty |
Fingerprinting is only undertaken within the specified UK control zones at juxtaposed ports.
Border Force does not hold the data requested in an accessible format.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of not including statutory protection for all migrant women in the Domestic Abuse Bill.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Following the recommendations of the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill in June 2019, the Government committed to review our overall response on migrant victims.
We are aiming to publish the conclusions of our review on the definition of domestic abuse ahead of Commons Report stage of the Domestic Abuse Bill on 6 July.
Draft statutory guidance was published today, 1 July, and covers the impact of domestic abuse on migrant victims and highlights the barriers they face in seeking support.
We have also announced that we will be pledging a further £1.5 million towards a pilot later this year to cover the cost of support in a refuge or other safe accommodation for migrant victims who are unable to access public funds. We will use the pilot to assess the level of need for migrant victims of domestic abuse and the pilot will be specifically used to inform future decisions on immediate support provision for migrant victims.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2020 to Question 61486 on UK Border Force: Coronavirus, whether the policy to begin fingerprinting migrants trying to enter the UK irregularly at its French border has been implemented.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Border Force re-started collecting fingerprints of illegal migrants detected at juxtaposed controls on the 15th of May 2020.