The Home Office – the main UK public authority responsible for immigration – is keenly interested in identifying ‘sham’ marriages which are designed to game the immigration system. 1 Since at least 2015, the department has used an automated system to determine whether to investigate a proposed marriage. 2 Marriage registrars across the country transmit details of proposed marriages to the system via ‘data feeds’. The system applies eight ‘risk factors’ to assess the risk that a couple’s marriage is a sham. These risk factors include the couple’s interactions
119 FOUR Oversight and chief officers’ relationships with police authorities, directly elected police crime commissioners, HMIC and the Home Office Relations between chief officers and police authorities Responding to the initiatives, requirements and oversight of the police authority, both as a corporate body and in individual interactions, is one of the clear divides between the largely operational command role of a chief superintendent and the strategic command role of the chief officer.1 This interrelationship is unlikely to change substantially when
27 Voluntary Sector Review • vol 7 • no 1 • 27–46 • © Policy Press 2016 • #VSR Print ISSN 2040 8056 • Online ISSN 2040 8064 • http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/204080516X14555434070880 research The combination of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ strategies in VSO–government partnerships: the relationship between Refugee Action and the Home Office in the UK Derek McGhee, d.p.mcghee@soton.ac.uk Claire Bennett, bennett_claire@hotmail.com University of Southampton, UK Sarah Walker, sarah.walker@compas.ac.uk University of Oxford, and Goldsmiths, University of London, UK In
submitted to the UN evidence of human rights abuses in the UK ( ATD Fourth World, 2023 ) through a coalition called GRIPP (gripp.org.uk), which includes ATD Fourth World, and is supported by Amnesty International. RAPAR has for years been challenging conditions in state-funded accommodation for people seeking asylum. We have focused on the global corporation, Serco, who have been contracted by the UK’s Home Office to provide asylum accommodation in Greater Manchester. We start here with a preliminary analysis of how some statutory bodies are failing to implement their
335 Families, Relationships and Societies • vol 7 • no 2 • 335–36 • ©Policy Press • 2018 ISSN 2046 7435 • ISSN 2046 7443 • https://doi.org/10.1332/204674318X15233474418607 Accepted for publication 21 March 2018 • First published online 29 June 2018 Home Office and family immigration: four decades of battles for human rights Don Flynn, d.flynn@migrantsrights.org.uk Former director of Migrants’ Rights Network key words migration • family To cite this article: Flynn, D. (2018) Home Office and family immigration: four decades of battles for human rights
337 Families, Relationships and Societies • vol 7 • no 2 • 337–39 • ©Policy Press • 2018 ISSN 2046 7435 • ISSN 2046 7443 • https://doi.org/10.1332/204674318X15233474922436 Accepted for publication 26 March 2018 • First published online 29 June 2018 ‘If only you could listen’: no recourse to public funds – migrant women’s letter to the UK Home Office Erene Kaptani, E.kaptani@greenwich.ac.uk University of Greenwich, London, UK Margins to Centre Stage Performance Group, Praxis, London key words Black women • citizenship • migrant motherhood • migration policy
In recent years, the United Kingdom's Home Office has started using automated systems to make immigration decisions. These systems promise faster, more accurate, and cheaper decision-making, but in practice they have exposed people to distress, disruption, and even deportation.
This book identifies a pattern of risky experimentation with automated systems in the Home Office. It analyses three recent case studies including: a voice recognition system used to detect fraud in English-language testing; an algorithm for identifying ‘risky’ visa applications; and automated decision-making in the EU Settlement Scheme.
The book argues that a precautionary approach is essential to ensure that society benefits from government automation without exposing individuals to unacceptable risks.
Using unpublished email interviews collected for a Home Office project on the sex industry, this anthology presents the individual stories of sex workers and buyers in England and Wales, in their own words. The author Natasha Mulvihill also re-interviews the participants to reflect on their original interview, their experience of engaging in research and of managing through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of interest to policy-makers and students of Criminology, Sociology, Social Policy, Law and Qualitative Methods, the text seeks to navigate through the difficult politics of the sex industry and re-focus our understanding on the lived experiences of those involved.
When suspects are arrested, they spend their time in police custody largely in isolation and out of public view. These custody blocks are police territory, and public controversies about what happens there often only arise when a detainee dies.
Custody visitors are volunteers who make what are supposed to be random and unannounced visits to police custody blocks to check on the welfare of detainees. However, there is a fundamental power imbalance between the police and these visitors, which calls the independence and effectiveness of custody visiting into question.
Investigating this largely unexplored part of the criminal justice system, this timely book includes the voices of the detainees who have a unique insight into the scheme. It offers detailed proposals for radically reforming custody visiting to make it an effective regulator of police behaviour, with an explanation of the political context that could make that a reality.
Lurid headlines on every aspect of migration have been a consistent feature of the last decade, from worries over asylum seekers to concerns about unprecedented economic immigration from Eastern Europe.
This book presents the first comprehensive account of government policy on immigration over the last ten years, providing an in-depth analysis of policy and legislation since Tony Blair and New Labour were first elected. The account begins by placing policy change under Labour in their proper historical context, before examining the key policy themes - economic migration; security; integration; asylum; delivery - of the last decade.
Through an analysis of such policy themes, the author contends that immigration policy has undergone an intense and innovative transformation in the period from May 1997 to May 2007. Arguing that a more plural system of governance exists, the author challenges traditional accounts of policy development. By addressing the various influences on immigration policymaking, from globalisation, the European Union and the law, to politics, the media and the networks of special interests, he seeks to provide a holistic explanation for the transformation of immigration policy. The author concludes with an evaluation of Labour’s immigration reforms, and whether government policy can be judged a success.
The book will be of interest to policymakers, academics, students studying immigration, and readers interested in serious current affairs.
