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1135476

	registered interest
	date	28/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Immigration: EU Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to pages 9-10 of the Memorandum of Understanding between his Department and the Department for Work and Pensions and to pages 12-13 of the Memorandum of Understanding between his Department and HMRC, for what reasons automated residency checks will not check applicants' records on child benefit.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	270744
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/07/2019 answer text <p>The purpose of the automated checks is to help the applicant establish their continuous residence in the UK. Eligibility to receive benefits is not dependent upon being continuously resident in the UK. Benefits except Job Seekers Allowance and Maternity Allowance on their own are not strong indicators of continuous residence unless receipt of them persists over a period of 12 months. There are also overlaps with other data that is available from the checks. For instance, PAYE data covers most applicants who claim working tax credits and receipt of other benefits included in the checks will overlap with receipt of child tax credits. Child Benefit is not included in the automated checks because it is not a sufficient indicator of continuous UK residence. A full explanation of how the automated checks work has been published at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-settlement-scheme-uk-tax-and-benefits-records-automated-check." target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-settlement-scheme-uk-tax-and-benefits-records-automated-check.</a></p><p>Following analysis conducted on an anonymised sample of 10,000 applications submitted under the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, the Home Office estimated that the potential pool of resident EEA citizens who might benefit from tax credits data being included in the automated checks was around two per cent and this was before any consideration of the applicability of that data to proving continuous residence. Individuals who need to rely on tax credits to demonstrate their continuous residence are still able to provide documentary evidence of this as part of their application.</p><p>In accordance with section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, we have had due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes grouped question UIN 270745 question first answered 03/07/2019 15:33:05 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1135336

	registered interest
	date	27/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Immigration: EU Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2019 to Question 267306, if he will place in the House of Commons Library a copy of any (a) minutes of meetings where the decision to exclude tax credit records was discussed or made and (b) equality impact assessment conducted to inform that decision.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	270376
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2019 answer text <p>The purpose of the automated checks is to help the applicant establish their continuous residence in the UK. Eligibility to receive benefits is not dependent upon being continuously resident in the UK. Benefits except Job Seekers Allowance and Maternity Allowance on their own are not strong indicators of continuous residence unless receipt of them persists over a period of 12 months. There are also overlaps with other data that is available from the checks. For instance, PAYE data covers most applicants who claim working tax credits and receipt of other benefits included in the checks will overlap with receipt of child tax credits. Child Benefit is not included in the automated checks because it is not a sufficient indicator of continuous UK residence. A full explanation of how the automated checks work has been published at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-settlement-scheme-uk-tax-and-benefits-records-automated-check." target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-settlement-scheme-uk-tax-and-benefits-records-automated-check.</a></p><p>Following analysis conducted on an anonymised sample of 10,000 applications submitted under the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006, the Home Office estimated that the potential pool of resident EEA citizens who might benefit from tax credits data being included in the automated checks was around two per cent and this was before any consideration of the applicability of that data to proving continuous residence. Individuals who need to rely on tax credits to demonstrate their continuous residence are still able to provide documentary evidence of this as part of their application.</p><p>In accordance with section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, we have had due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 02/07/2019 16:54:28 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1135337

	registered interest
	date	27/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Immigration: EU Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applicants to the EU Settlement scheme are recorded as being (a) male and (b) female in relation to the outcome of their applications.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	270377
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2019 answer text <p>The second official statistics – ‘EU Settlement Scheme Statistics, May 2019’ – on the operation of the scheme were published on 20 June 2019, including applications received by nationality and constituent parts of the UK. These can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019</a></p><p>The Home Office is committed to publishing more detailed quarterly statistics on the EU Settlement Scheme, alongside our Immigration Statistics, from August 2019. Home Office statisticians and officials are currently considering the content and will take into account the views of statistics users.</p><p>The application process for the EU Settlement Scheme collects data on the applicant’s date of birth, nationality and, where appropriate, marital or civil partnership status. Other data on protected characteristics may be processed as part of the application.</p><p>In accordance with the public sector equality duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Government continues to have due regard to the impacts of the EU Settlement Scheme on those who share a protected characteristic. A Policy Equality Statement, which sets out the Government’s consideration of the impacts of the scheme on those who share such a characteristic, will be published shortly.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes grouped question UIN 270378 270379 270380 question first answered 02/07/2019 15:57:53 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1135338

	registered interest
	date	27/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Immigration: EU Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data fields are processed by the EU Settlement scheme that are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	270378
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2019 answer text <p>The second official statistics – ‘EU Settlement Scheme Statistics, May 2019’ – on the operation of the scheme were published on 20 June 2019, including applications received by nationality and constituent parts of the UK. These can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019</a></p><p>The Home Office is committed to publishing more detailed quarterly statistics on the EU Settlement Scheme, alongside our Immigration Statistics, from August 2019. Home Office statisticians and officials are currently considering the content and will take into account the views of statistics users.</p><p>The application process for the EU Settlement Scheme collects data on the applicant’s date of birth, nationality and, where appropriate, marital or civil partnership status. Other data on protected characteristics may be processed as part of the application.</p><p>In accordance with the public sector equality duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Government continues to have due regard to the impacts of the EU Settlement Scheme on those who share a protected characteristic. A Policy Equality Statement, which sets out the Government’s consideration of the impacts of the scheme on those who share such a characteristic, will be published shortly.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes grouped question UIN 270377 270379 270380 question first answered 02/07/2019 15:57:53 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1135339

	registered interest
	date	27/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Immigration: EU Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons data disaggregated by protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 is not included in his Department's monthly official statistics on the operation of the EU Settlement Scheme.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	270379
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2019 answer text <p>The second official statistics – ‘EU Settlement Scheme Statistics, May 2019’ – on the operation of the scheme were published on 20 June 2019, including applications received by nationality and constituent parts of the UK. These can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019</a></p><p>The Home Office is committed to publishing more detailed quarterly statistics on the EU Settlement Scheme, alongside our Immigration Statistics, from August 2019. Home Office statisticians and officials are currently considering the content and will take into account the views of statistics users.</p><p>The application process for the EU Settlement Scheme collects data on the applicant’s date of birth, nationality and, where appropriate, marital or civil partnership status. Other data on protected characteristics may be processed as part of the application.</p><p>In accordance with the public sector equality duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Government continues to have due regard to the impacts of the EU Settlement Scheme on those who share a protected characteristic. A Policy Equality Statement, which sets out the Government’s consideration of the impacts of the scheme on those who share such a characteristic, will be published shortly.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes grouped question UIN 270377 270378 270380 question first answered 02/07/2019 15:57:53 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1135340

	registered interest
	date	27/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Immigration: EU Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 May 2019 to Question 252534, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the compliance of the operation of the EU Settlement Scheme with the public sector equality duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	270380
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2019 answer text <p>The second official statistics – ‘EU Settlement Scheme Statistics, May 2019’ – on the operation of the scheme were published on 20 June 2019, including applications received by nationality and constituent parts of the UK. These can be found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019</a></p><p>The Home Office is committed to publishing more detailed quarterly statistics on the EU Settlement Scheme, alongside our Immigration Statistics, from August 2019. Home Office statisticians and officials are currently considering the content and will take into account the views of statistics users.</p><p>The application process for the EU Settlement Scheme collects data on the applicant’s date of birth, nationality and, where appropriate, marital or civil partnership status. Other data on protected characteristics may be processed as part of the application.</p><p>In accordance with the public sector equality duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Government continues to have due regard to the impacts of the EU Settlement Scheme on those who share a protected characteristic. A Policy Equality Statement, which sets out the Government’s consideration of the impacts of the scheme on those who share such a characteristic, will be published shortly.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes grouped question UIN 270377 270378 270379 question first answered 02/07/2019 15:57:53 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1133855

	registered interest
	date	21/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Visas: Fees and Charges
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2019 to Question 263147 on Visas: Applications, what the new costs of out of hours appointments will be.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	267739
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2019 answer text <p>We are aware that increased demand has had an impact on short term appointment availability which means customers might not always be able to book an appointment at their earliest convenience.</p><p>We are working with Sopra Steria Limited (SSL) as a matter of priority on a number of actions to increase the capacity at service points and we expect availability to increase shortly. These measures include; six additional service points in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Exeter in May and June. SSL are also increasing appointments offered to customers across a number of existing sites and have reduced the cost of out of hours appointments to £50 in the Croydon service point. Charges in other core sites currently range from £75 to £100, but we will continue to monitor prices and customer demand.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 26/06/2019 14:46:35 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1131342

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Entry Clearances: Applications
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to improve the level of service provided by Sopra Steria for in-country visa services at UK visa and citizenship application service centres and enhanced service points across the UK.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	263146
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2019 answer text <p>UKVI officials meet with Sopra Steria Limited (SSL) on a regular basis to review performance and drive improvements to service standards. We are aware that there are issues with capacity at the moment which means customers might not always be able to book an appointment at their earliest convenience.</p><p>We are working with SSL as a matter of priority on a number of actions to increase the capacity at service points and we expect availability to increase shortly. These measures include; four additional enhanced service points in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh over the last month, increasing appointments offered to customers across a number of existing sites and reducing the cost of out of hours appointments.</p><p>Planning is underway with Sopra Steria and we are looking at a range of options to ensure that there is sufficient capacity within the service to meet demand during the student Autumn surge period.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 17/06/2019 10:29:16 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1131344

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Visas: Applications
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure that the UK Visa and Citizenship Application Service centres and enhanced service points across the UK have sufficient capacity to handle the increase in demand that will result from the student surge period in September 2019.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	263147
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/06/2019 answer text <p>UKVI officials meet with Sopra Steria Limited (SSL) on a regular basis to review performance and drive improvements to service standards. We are aware that there are issues with capacity at the moment which means customers might not always be able to book an appointment at their earliest convenience.</p><p>We are working with SSL as a matter of priority on a number of actions to increase the capacity at service points and we expect availability to increase shortly. These measures include; four additional enhanced service points in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh over the last month, increasing appointments offered to customers across a number of existing sites and reducing the cost of out of hours appointments.</p><p>Planning is underway with Sopra Steria and we are looking at a range of options to ensure that there is sufficient capacity within the service to meet demand during the student Autumn surge period.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes question first answered 17/06/2019 10:30:43 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

1131086

	registered interest
	date	10/06/2019
	answering body	Home Office
	answering dept id	1
	answering dept short name	Home Office
	answering dept sort name	Home Office
	hansard heading	Deportation: Democratic Republic of Congo
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of whether it is safe to deport nationals of the Democratic Republic of Congo to that country.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
	tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
	uin	262356
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/06/2019 answer text <p>We only return those who are without a legal right to remain in the UK, including foreign national offenders, when we and, where the individual has exercised a right of appeal, the courts deem it is safe to do so, on a case by case basis.</p><p>We are currently reviewing our assessment of risk faced by rejected asylum seekers and foreign national offenders on return to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). An updated country policy and information note setting out our position will be published in due course.The Home Office has regular discussions with the Foreign Office on a range of issues and has on a number of occasions discussed the subject of returns to the DRC to establish as full an assessment of the situation as possible.</p> answering member constituency Romsey and Southampton North answering member printed Caroline Nokes grouped question UIN 262357 262358 question first answered 13/06/2019 11:35:16 answering member 4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes
	tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield