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Written Question
Sanctions: Enforcement
Thursday 21st March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to (a) identify and (b) prosecute sanctions evasion.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

HMG is committed to investing in its sanction’s policy and enforcement architecture. In recognition of the centrality of sanctions, the FCDO established a permanent Sanctions Directorate in 2022 with over 120 permanent staff delivering its response. In addition, we have strengthened financial sanctions enforcement capacity and capability. OFSI has significantly increased its staffing from 40 FTE in February 2022 to over 100.

On 13 March 2023, the Prime Minister announced a new Economic Deterrence Initiative (EDI) which will tackle sanctions evasion across the UK’s trade, transport and financial sanctions. The initiative will be a cross-government effort, led by FCDO and involving a range of Departments and agencies including DBT, HMT and DFT, as well as HMRC and NCA.

With funding of up to £50m over two years, the initiative will improve our sanctions implementation and enforcement. This will maximise the impact of our trade, transport and financial sanctions, including by cracking down on sanctions evasion.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 brought powers to provide for the civil forfeiture of cyrptoassets and can be used as a tool to prevent cryptoassets being used as vector for sanctions evasion.

Finally, a new kleptocracy cell in the NCA has been established to target sanctions evasion and corrupt Russian assets hidden in the UK – meaning oligarchs in London will have nowhere to hide.


Written Question
Police: Cardiff
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing additional funding for policing in Cardiff in recognition of its capital city status.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

On 31st January, the Government confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £18.4 billion in 2024-25, an increase of up to £842.9 million when compared to 2023-24.

South Wales Police will receive up to £399.9 million in 2024-25, an increase of up to £24.4 million compared to 2023-24.

The Government has previously carefully considered requests for additional funding from South Wales Police.

The Home Office will continue to work with South Wales Police to assess its pressures and any capital city funding requirements as part of the wider review of police funding.


Written Question
Refugees: Afghanistan
Tuesday 17th October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Afghan refugees who were not made offers of alternative housing were made homeless following the closure of hotel accommodation in each local authority in Wales.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

All 55 hotels being used to house around 8,000 Afghans at the end of March were no longer being used as bridging accommodation by 31 August.

The UK Government has granted all Afghans relocated through safe and legal routes with Indefinite Leave to Remain, including the immediate right to work, alongside access to the benefits system and vital health, education, and employment support.

On top of this the Government made available £35m of new funding to enable Local Authorities to provide increased support for Afghan households to move from hotels into settled accommodation.

The monitoring of Homelessness duties owed to this cohort is the responsibility of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

DLUHC has been gathering survey data from local authorities in England on homelessness duties owed to Afghans leaving bridging accommodation. This data has been published in the Homelessness management information – Afghan nationals: England.

In summary the total number of Afghan households in this cohort in temporary accommodation under a homelessness duty in England as of 31 August was 188.

This is based on a voluntary survey to local authorities in England with a 74% response rate, of which 35% of local authorities had reported owing homelessness duties to Afghan households leaving bridging accommodation.

DLUHC will continue to monitor homelessness duties to this cohort going forwards and the Home Office will continue to publish statistics on resettlement schemes in the usual way.

The information requested for each local authority in Wales is not currently available. The following operational data published by the Home Office may be of interest: Afghan bridging hotel exit operational data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Asylum and Immigration: Wales
Thursday 12th January 2023

Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) asylum and (b) general immigration cases from Welsh constituencies have been waiting for a decision for over (i) six months, (ii) one year and (iii) two years.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The Home Office publishes data on work in progress in the Migration Transparency Data. However, this is not available by constituency. Data on the asylum work in progress are provided in table Asy_03 of the immigration and protection data. The latest data relates to as at 30 June 2022. Data on migration work in progress are provided in table VSI_03 of the visas and citizenship data. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2022.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 13 Oct 2022
Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

Speech Link

View all Stephen Doughty (LAB - Cardiff South and Penarth) contributions to the debate on: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 13 Oct 2022
Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

Speech Link

View all Stephen Doughty (LAB - Cardiff South and Penarth) contributions to the debate on: Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill

Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 19 Apr 2022
Global Migration Challenge

Speech Link

View all Stephen Doughty (LAB - Cardiff South and Penarth) contributions to the debate on: Global Migration Challenge

Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 08 Mar 2022
Ukraine: Urgent Refugee Applications

Speech Link

View all Stephen Doughty (LAB - Cardiff South and Penarth) contributions to the debate on: Ukraine: Urgent Refugee Applications

Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 07 Dec 2021
Nationality and Borders Bill

Speech Link

View all Stephen Doughty (LAB - Cardiff South and Penarth) contributions to the debate on: Nationality and Borders Bill

Written Question
Asylum: LGBT People
Wednesday 17th November 2021

Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applicants claiming asylum on the basis of LGBT+ status were (a) accepted, (b) rejected, (c) detained and (d) deported in each of the last five years.

Answered by Kevin Foster

Regarding part (a) and (b) of the question, the Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’.

Data on asylum claims where sexual orientation formed part of the basis for the claim are published in tables SOC00 – SOC04 of the ‘LGB asylum data tables’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to 2020. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’. Please note, these statistics are experimental and should be interpreted with caution. Further information can be found in the asylum claims on the basis of sexual orientation topic.

Regarding part (c) and (d) of the question, the basis of an asylum claim is not routinely recorded in relation to detention or returns and the information sought could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.