Every parliamentary written question tabled by Ellie Chowns this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 1–12 of 12 · Home Office
What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department’s Worker priority change of circumstance service in supporting health services, such as the Ledbury Health Partnership GP surgery, to address staffing requirements.
Awaiting answer.
If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a introducing an expedited process for frontline healthcare organisations requiring Certificates of Sponsorship to support visa renewals.
Working alongside the DHSC-funded Regional Partnerships, UKVI have already established a process for expediting the processing of applications for the social care sector.This supports visa renewals and those care workers who have been impacted by their employer's licence being revoked. This involves a letter of support from the relevant Director for Adult Social Services (DASS) being issued to a specific UKVI mailbox which receives preferential consideration over other priority services.
With reference to her Department’s recent announcement that Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) scheme applicants will be able to apply up to 90 days before their current UPE permission expires, when she plans to confirm the start date for the new 90 day period.
The 90 day application window will come into effect through a change to the Immigration Rules this spring.The Home Office has stated that updates on the implementation of the new 90‑day period will be published on the official guidance page. The most up‑to‑date information is located here: Applying to the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme - GOV.UK
What assessment she has made of the potential merits of establishing a community sponsorship scheme for refugees from Gaza.
We are not considering establishing a bespoke immigration route for Palestinians. In any humanitarian situation, the UK must carefully consider its approach in response. Any decision to implement a bespoke visa scheme would need to consider a range of factors, including assessing the unique crisis and relevant impacts on security, compliance and returns.Palestinians who wish to come to the UK can do so via the existing routes available, which allow a person to apply to work, study, settle or join family in the UK. Further information can be found on the GOV.UK website: UK Visas and Immigration - GOV.UK
With reference to the guidance entitled Suitability: non-conducive grounds for refusal or cancellation of entry clearance or permission, published on 19 January 2024, whether Elon Musk would meet the criteria of a person not conducive to the public good.
It is longstanding Home Office policy not to comment on individual cases.Where a foreign national is seeking to enter or stay in the UK, in order to qualify they will be assessed by the Home Office against a range of provisions in the current Immigration Rules relating to criminality and other adverse conduct and character prior to their entry to, and any previous time spent in, the UK. Failure to satisfy these criteria may mean their application for a visa, entry clearance, permission to enter or permission to stay will be refused, depending on the severity of past offences or other factors in their history.
What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Security Industry Authority’s (SIA) (a) licensing and (b) training requirements in ensuring that private security staff are appropriately (i) qualified and (ii) competent to manage safety and security risks; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that SIA-approved training providers are effectively monitored to (A) prevent malpractice and (B) uphold training standards.
The private security industry plays a crucial role in keeping the public safe and it is critical that there is a high standard of regulatory oversight of the industry. The Security Industry Authority (SIA) provides such oversight by operating the regulatory regime set up by the Private Security Industry Act 2001 (PSIA).This includes setting minimum standards for, and ensuring individuals seeking to work in designated roles have completed, mandatory training, as well as running criminal record and other checks. This aims to ensure that SIA licence holders are ‘fit and proper’ individuals who have the relevant skills and knowledge needed to perform their role. The SIA is currently conducting a 5 year review of training standards to ensure skills keep pace with emerging threats, and will be working closely with experts and the industry on this.Training providers and qualification awarding bodies are regulated by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) and its partner organisations in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The SIA is working closely with these partners to share intelligence, conduct more inspections and improve systems in order to uphold the integrity of qualifications.
If she will make it her policy to prevent rape suspects from leaving the country during an active investigation.
Police have wide discretion to impose bail conditions on rape suspects intended to protect victims and witnesses, prevent offending and to prevent the suspect from failing to appear in court – including by requiring suspects to surrender their passport.Bail conditions must be necessary, reasonable and proportionate, and subject to regular review as the perceived risk posed by the suspect may change over time.The police should, if practicable, always consult the victim regarding the decision to release a suspect on bail and the conditions to impose.
Pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2025 to Question 35504 on Elections: Subversion, whether the Defending Democracy Taskforce plans to consider evidence on alleged Kremlin-linked interference in past UK elections.
We have robust systems in place to defend the UK from all forms of malign state interference in UK democratic processes, including from Russia.The Defending Democracy Taskforce brings together Ministers from across Government, along with representatives from law enforcement and the intelligence community, to coordinate a programme of work that aims to protect UK political parties, elected officials and core electoral infrastructure. A key part of this is ensuring we learn from previous elections.As part of this, the Cabinet Office, together with MHCLG, runs the Joint Election Security and Preparedness Unit, which leads on coordinating cross-government preparedness on election security.
What information her Department holds on the incident rate per thousand people of (a) rape and (b) other sexual offences in (i) Herefordshire and (ii) each of the other 14 comparators areas in the Most Similar Force group.
The Office for National Statistics publishes information on rates per population for offences recorded by the police in England areas and Wales, by offence group and Community Safety Partnership level (CSP). Data for the CSP of Herefordshire, and the 14 respective comparator , for the year ending September 2024 can be found in Table C4 here: Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables - Office for National Statistics.The Home Office publishes additional information on rape on an annual basis by Police Force Area only. These data include incidents, crimes and cancelled / transferred records and can be found on the Police recorded crime and outcomes open data webpage here: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK.
What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the disbanding of Multi-Agency Assurance Panels on independent assurance of National Referral Mechanism decisions in the review of negative Conclusive Grounds decisions by the Single Competent Authority and Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority to identify victims of modern slavery; and if she will make it her policy to reinstate a MAAP assurance process that (a) tests consistency of decision-making and (b) protects the individual concerned.
The number of referrals into the National Referral Mechanism has continued to grow year on year (17,004 individuals were referred into the NRM in 2023), and the pressure on the timeliness of decision-making in the NRM has only continued to increase. The previous government concluded that the design of the Multi-Agency Assurance Panels (MAAPs) process contributed to the number of days being added to the decision-making timelines for those exiting the NRM as non-victims, and therefore, to help provide greater certainty sooner to that cohort of individuals, MAAPs were removed in December 2022. To further improve the timeliness of decision-making in the NRM, this Government has made arrangements for an additional 200 Home Office decision makers to be recruited in order to eradicate the backlog of decisions on modern slavery cases within 2 years. Regarding assurances of decision making, both competent authorities employ a Quality Strategy intended to support the vision of delivering quality outcomes for victims of modern slavery by regularly reporting quality assurance outcomes to decision making teams.All negative decisions taken by Competent Authorities are reviewed by a second caseworker or manager in line with statutory obligations. This includes negative Reasonable Grounds decisions, negative Conclusive Grounds decisions, and Public Order Disqualification and Bad Faith disqualification decisions. The quality assurance of decisions made also includes random sampling of positive decisions.The Home Office continues to keep the assurance of decision making in the competent authorities under review, including whether independent assurance would be beneficial to decision making outcomes.
How many (a) rapes and (b) other sexual offences were reported to police in (i) Herefordshire and (ii) each neighbouring area in each of the last five years; and what the rate of (A) rape and (B) other sexual offences per thousand population was in each of those years.
Please see the below tables for the number of rape and other sexual offences recorded by the police and the rate per 1,000 population in Herefordshire and all other Community Safety Partnership (CSP) areas within West Mercia Police Force Area in the last five financial years. Offences where information about the CSP area has not been provided by the force have been assigned to the “West Mercia (CSP Unknown)” field.NumberRape OffencesCSP2019/202020/212021/222022/232023/24Herefordshire, County of161195238215196North Worcestershire294225306318243Shropshire240251264276239South Worcester299243343367280Telford and Wrekin232245295302286West Mercia (CSP Unknown)1113161116 RateRape Offences, Rate per 1000s populationCSP2019/202020/212021/222022/232023/24Herefordshire, County of0.861.051.271.141.04North Worcestershire1.030.781.061.100.84Shropshire0.750.780.810.840.73South Worcester0.960.781.081.150.88Telford and Wrekin1.271.341.591.601.51 NumberOther Sexual OffencesCSP2019/202020/212021/222022/232023/24Herefordshire, County of317280410417381North Worcestershire410426566558446Shropshire466394545521502South Worcester519463610616529Telford and Wrekin446380404463428West Mercia (CSP Unknown)1217392527 RateOther Sexual Offences, Rate per 1000s populationCSP2019/202020/212021/222022/232023/24Herefordshire, County of1.701.512.192.212.02North Worcestershire1.431.491.961.931.54Shropshire1.461.231.681.591.53South Worcester1.661.481.931.931.65Telford and Wrekin2.452.072.172.452.26
With reference to UK Visas and Immigration guidance entitled Register of licensed sponsors: workers, updated on 2 October 2024, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of provision in place to support workers where scheme operator licences are revoked; and whether there are mechanisms in place to inspect the accommodation to which seasonal workers are transferred when the licence of their original sponsor is revoked.
Processes have been put in place to ensure individuals impacted by sponsor licence revocation are not detrimentally impacted. The Home Office has helped facilitate continuity of work with alternative sponsors for those who were originally attached to such companies. The Home Office is not responsible for setting or enforcing UK accommodation standards. Should any concerns be raised with the Home Office or identified during compliance activities, these will be passed to the relevant authorities.