Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published 28 July 2021, what progress her Department has made on defining a cross-government accessibility profession.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Home Office Officials are working in collaboration with Officials from the Cabinet Office’s Central Digital, Data and Technology office (CDDO) and other government departments to gather and build the evidence and business case for a digital accessibility career path within the Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) profession. An outline proposal has been submitted to the CDDO’s Profession Management function for consideration and officials are due to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the proposals.
In the meantime, work has begun to scope the roles and supporting framework in anticipation of approval. This work will build on the work already done to establish a roles framework for digital accessibility professionals at the Home Office.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published July 2021, what progress her Department has made towards a review into the protections and support available to adults abused in their own homes by people providing their care.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Home Office is working jointly with Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to lead and deliver the review. The government is committed to ensuring people receive quality care with positive outcomes, which includes preventing and addressing any instances of abuse or exploitation by the people providing that care, in this case in their homes, a place where adults should feel safe.
The government is analysing the existing protections for adults abused in their own homes by people providing their care, and the support available to victims of such abuse. The review team are engaging with a range of stakeholders, collecting inputs from across-Government and particularly from those groups representing deaf and disabled people and carers to understand their lived experiences.
The review will be completed later this year and Parliament will be updated as it progresses.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Government Liaison Officers are still assigned to bridging hotels for Afghan refugees; and if she will provide to the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford the contact details for the officer based at the Holiday Inn, Stoke.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We can confirm that Hotel Liaison Officers (HOLOs) continue to provide ongoing support and advice to those residing in all of our Bridging Hotel Accommodation.
The role of the HOLO is to provide both face to face support and remote support when not physically present, they are reactive to the needs of those accommodated in hotels.
We have provided the details of the Hotel Liaison Officer for Stoke directly to the Member for Lewisham, Deptford.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to the letter dated 22 September 2021 from the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford, regarding a constituent who was recently evacuated from Afghanistan with their family.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Minister for Afghan Resettlement has now issued a response.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support she has made available to (a) Lewisham Donation Hub, (b) Little Village and (c) other voluntary organisations who are supporting the distribution of medication, nappies, baby formula and other vital supplies to destitute refugee families from Afghanistan recently arrived in the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Under Operation Warm Welcome, we are taking a cross-government approach to ensuring Afghans arriving in the UK are able to rebuild their lives, find work, pursue education and integrate within their local communities.
The challenge of integrating such a large number of people at pace and supporting them to rebuild their lives in safety cannot be met by central government and local government alone. We will be actively working with the private, voluntary and community sectors to harness a whole society effort to address this challenge.
As part of this, we are creating a portal where people, organisations and businesses can register offers of support. This could include volunteering, offers of employment, or to provide professional skills pro bono, including helping those arriving deal with trauma, or offering donations of mobile phones, mobile credit or data, laptops, access to training, clothes and toys. This will complement the Afghanistan housing portal which has been set up to collect offers of additional housing support.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to improve the adequacy and effectiveness of Operation Warm Welcome.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Operation Warm Welcome is the cross-Government programme of work for those we have relocated and resettled from Afghanistan.
It will ensure that all those relocated to the UK can access the vital healthcare, housing, education and support into employment they need to fully integrate into our society, including English language training for those who need it.
As part of Operation Warm Welcome, the Home Office are giving indefinite leave to remain to all those being relocated under ARAP and the Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme. We continue to work with local authorities to source appropriate accommodation as quickly as possible for families already in the UK, with more housing being pledged every week and I urge every council across the country to contribute to this national effort.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to provide details of (a) the Afghan refugees in quarantine and (b) the bridging hotels to which they will be moved on to the voluntary organisations providing vital support as at 13 September 2021, including Lewisham Donation Hub, Little Village and Re:Act.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We have announced the Afghanistan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), working with international partners to identify those most at risk and resettle them, ensuring help goes to those who need it.
The Government will work with stakeholders, including devolved administrations and local councils, to ensure that Afghans who will be rebuilding their lives in the UK have the support they need. I urge you to encourage your local authorities to participate
The cross-Government efforts to ensure that people are brought from Afghanistan to the UK as quickly as possible has meant that it has not been possible, in all cases, to arrange local authority support. In those cases we are putting in place hotel accommodation.
Afghanistan is on the government’s red list, so all arrivals must quarantine for 10 days in a managed quarantine facility and take two PCR tests which can be sequenced. These rules apply to all those who have been and continue to arrive through the ARAP scheme must quarantine and anyone with rights of residence in the UK who is not exempt.
The challenge of integrating such a large number of people at pace and supporting them to rebuild their lives in safety cannot be met by central and local government alone. We will be actively working with the private, voluntary and community sectors to harness a whole of society effort to address this challenge.
As part of this, we are creating a portal where people, organisations and businesses can register offers of support. This could include volunteering, offers of employment or to provide professional skills pro bono, including helping those arriving deal with trauma, or offering donations of mobile phones, mobile credit or data, laptops, access to training, clothes and toys. This will complement the Afghanistan housing portal which has been set up to collect offers of additional housing support.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to to the Answer of 18 May 2021 to Question 3065 on Windrush Generation: compensation, for what reasons the number of claimants to the Windrush Compensation Scheme that have demonstrated no impact on life is not held centrally.
Answered by Priti Patel
The system at this time does not allow us to extract this information without doing a manual trawl of all case records and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the mechanism is for applicants to the Metropolitan Police Service to request sight of confidential disclosures made about them as part of the vetting process.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Police vetting is a matter for forces. They are required to follow the College of Policing’s statutory code of practice on vetting, supported by the College’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) guidance on vetting.
The APP guidance outlines that forces should put allegations (recorded as intelligence) to the applicant where appropriate, taking into consideration factors such as the grading of the intelligence, potential for a source to be revealed, the threat to the wellbeing of a third party and/or the potential compromise of an operation or investigation.
All decisions and rationale for rejection should be communicated to the applicant in as much detail as possible, taking into account the circumstances of the case.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the EU Settlement Scheme from residents in (a) Lewisham Deptford constituency, (b) London and (c) the UK are awaiting a decision from her Department.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data on the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) in the ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’.
Data on the number of applications and concluded applications by UK local authority to 31 March 2021 are published in Tables EUSS_LA_01, EUSS_LA_02 and EUSS_LA_03 of the quarterly EUSS statistics local authority tables, which can be found at:
EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics, March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Total applications made and concluded are available from tables EUSS_01 and EUSS_03_UK which are published for the same period at: