Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has issued guidance on reasons that EU citizens with a valid passport may be refused entry to the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The guidance used by Border Force officers is published on the Government website Visiting the UK as an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). A person with a valid EU passport can still be refused if they don’t satisfy these requirements set out in 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, how many individuals from (a) EU 14, (b) EU 8, (c) EU 2, (d) other EU nations and (e) all other European nations presented at the border requesting entry to the UK in 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Border Force does not hold the data requested in an easily accessible format. However, the Home Office published data can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65563413544aea0019fb2eab/passenger-arrivals-admissions-summary-sep-2023-tables.ods.
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 and what proportion of EU citizens who were refused entry at the border intended to enter the UK for (a) leisure or tourism, (b) work or employment, (c) self-employment, (d) study, (e) temporarily (i) attending a conference and (ii) engaging in other work, (f) visiting family and (g) any other reason in 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Border Force does not hold the data requested in an easily accessible format. However, the Home Office published data can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65563413544aea0019fb2eab/passenger-arrivals-admissions-summary-sep-2023-tables.ods.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Border Target Operating Model on levels of food supply in (a) 2024, (b) 2025 and (c) 2026.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The resilience and reliability of food supply chains is a key objective of the Government as set out in last year’s Government Food Strategy. In implementing this new control regime for the first time on EU imports, we will carefully monitor the range of potential risks, including those that may impact food supply-chains.
We will work with importers to try to manage those risks in a structured way. We recognise that this new model for importing Sanitary and Phytosanitary goods will require some businesses and their supply-chains to adapt their business models. We do not expect food shortages.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the potential impact of the Border Target Operating Model on food price inflation in (a) 2024, (b) 2025 and (c) 2026.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Initial analysis has indicated that the policies introduced under the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM)would lead to an approximate increase in consumer food price inflation of less than 0.2% over a 3-year period. The cost of BTOM controls is equivalent to 0.4% of the UK’s agri-food Gross Value Added of £127bn in 2021, which serves as a proxy for food prices.
An outbreak of a major disease could have a much more significant impact. The 2001 outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease cost £12.8bn in 2022 prices, £4.8bn of which was cost to Government and £8bn cost to the private sector.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of 19 January 2024 in the debate on Border Target Operating Model: Health Certificates and SMEs, Official Report, column 1214, what his latest estimate is of the date by which the single trade window will be operational.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Single Trade Window will be delivered through a series of releases, each one adding new features and delivering an improved user experience. As set out in the Border Target Operating Model, the first release of STW functionality will be made available for public use ahead of October 2024. The STW could be fully operational in 2027 but remains subject to future legislative and funding decisions.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of 19 January 2024 by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on Border Target Operating Model: Health Certificates and SMEs, Official Report column 1216, what the common user charge for imports into the UK will be; and when he plans to apply it.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra consulted last year on the proposed Common User Charge (CUC) to recover operating costs at Government-run Border Control Posts. It invited views on the principles, methodology and indicative rates for the Common User Charge to determine fair and reasonable charges.
Defra will use feedback to inform the final policy, which we expect to publish shortly.
Commercial BCP fees are a business decision for the operators of those sites.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what proportion of named day questions were answered on or before the relevant named day by (a) all Government Departments and (b) the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in (i) the 2022-23 Parliamentary Session and (ii) the current Parliamentary session.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Data on response times to all written parliamentary questions is held by the House, rather than the Government. The Procedure Committee reports on departmental performance following the end of each Parliamentary Session, the most recent of which can be found on parliament.uk (https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1245/written-parliamentary-questions/publications), and the Government looks forward to receiving the Committee’s report on data from the 2022-23 Session. The Hon. Member may wish to approach the House regarding data for the current Parliamentary session.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2024 to Question 11775 on Origin Marking: Canada, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to rules of origin arrangements on tariffs for each sector identified as likely to be impacted.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
From 1 April, businesses will not be able to count EU material as originating in their exports to Canada under the FTA.
The impact on UK sectors will depend on individual business supply chains and the extent to which they use EU inputs. We are engaging extensively with business to understand the impact and help them prepare.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of providing special educational needs inclusion funding directly to providers based on identified need rather than through the early years national funding formula.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The early years national funding formulae contain an additional needs element, to take account of the number of children with additional needs in an area. This is important to ensure local authority level rates, and therefore allocations, reflect the needs of children in their area.
Local authorities establish Special Educational Needs Inclusion Funds (SENIFs) locally, using the early years block (distributed via the aforementioned formulae) and high needs blocks of their Dedicated Schools Grant allocation. More information on this allocation is available at: https://skillsfunding.service.gov.uk/view-latest-funding/national-funding-allocations/DSG/2024-to-2025. These funds are intended to support local authorities to work with providers to address the needs of individual children with Special Educational Needs who are taking up the entitlements and can be passed on direct to providers by local authorities.
The government’s response on 20 September 2023 to the consultation on expanding the early education entitlements reiterated the department’s commitment, made in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan of March 2023, to undertake a review of the way local authorities operate their SENIFs.
The department intends to conduct a detailed assessment of the SENIF arrangements that local authorities currently have in place, looking at how SENIFs are being used nationally and how far they are meeting current need. The department will look to draw examples of best practice together, with a view to sector-wide dissemination, and recommend longer term changes that will improve the extent to which SENIFs can meet the needs of children taking up the entitlements.