Select Committee
Parliament

Is there a case for saying that political advertising shouldn't be in someone's Facebook newsfeed? asks Damian Collins.

"This is not a question of revenue for us... what we do know is that advertising is a critical way to reach audiences," replies Mike Schroepfer.

He adds that there are a number of things that Facebook needs to do better, citing transparency as one area of improvement.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

The Leader of the House, Andrea Leadsom, is outlining future business in the Commons. Highlights next week include:

• Monday, remaining stages of the Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill, external, Laser Misuse Bill, external
• Tuesday, remaining stages of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, external
• Wednesday, an opposition day debate on Windrush
• Thursday, matters to be considered before adjournment

Provisional business for 7 May:

• remaining stages of the Secure Tenancies (Victims of Domestic Abuse) Bill, external
• consideration of Lords amendments to the Nuclear Safeguards Bill, external

Select Committee
Parliament

Damian Collins asks what proportion of websites have Facebook tracking software on them.

"Given the large scale of the internet, I don't know," replies Mike Schroepher.

"I'm an engineer. I don't like to speculate on things I haven't studied."

"Could you give us a range?" presses Mr Collins.

Mr Schroepher replies that it is not a statistic that he has tracked.

House of Commons
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Labour's Rachael Maskell says that this week it has become apparent that the home secretary was not aware of initiatives at the Home Office, "therefore, who is running her department?"

Ms Rudd says she is setting out the changes she is going to be making "to develop the confidence of everyone involved".

House of Commons
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Conservative Anna Soubry asks whether part of Labour's "dreadful legacy" was their obsession with targets.

As an excellent "new broom", Ms Soubry asks Amber Rudd to focus on "people not numbers".

"I do not want us to be run by a target culture," replies the home secretary.

"I want to make sure the individual is put at the heart of any decision."

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour's Paula Sherriff asks the home secretary if she takes responsibility for this issue - and that if she does, she "should do the honourable thing and resign".

Ms Rudd says "I do take seriously my responsibility, but I do think that I am the person who can put it right", she says, to cheers from the Conservative frontbench.

She says she understands that the House will want to "hold me to account", she says.

"But I am confident that the changes that I am committed to putting in place and the transparency that will go with that will deliver the changes that are expected."

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Matt Warman calls for a "continued focus on the removal of illegal immigrants" who "take advantage" of contributions made by hard-working taxpayers.

The home secretary welcomes his comment and says in the "vast majority of cases my office does an excellent job".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson Sir Ed Davey says the government has a target to reduce immigration, either "legal or illegal".

"Could it be that officials were following ministers' lead?" he asks.

Ms Rudd says that it is her experience that caseworkers "work with compassion and care when they look at administering their duty".

She says under her leadership, she "will always make sure that they do".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Labour's David Lammy says he has asked how many people were deported, how many were detained, and whether targets applied and in each case, he says, the home secretary says she didn't know.

He asks: "Is she really the right person to lead this great office of state?"

Amber Rudd tells him 7,000 cases have been looked at without finding evidence of deportation but "until we have looked we cannot have a definitive answer".

There's disquiet among Labour MPs as she says there was "some element of surprise" the problem took on "this particular shape".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Chair of the Home Affairs Committee Yvette Cooper says she looks forward to "more detail from her on this", referring to the use of removal targets by the Home Office.

The Foreign Office has said that as part of discussions with Caribbean nations, in April 2016 the leaders of these nations raised concerns on deportations back to their countries.

She asks if these concerns were passed to Home Office ministers.

Ms Rudd says this was raised yesterday, and she will look into it.

Select Committee
Parliament

Chair Damian Collins welcomes Facebook's Mike Schroepher to the committee's hearing.

Mr Collins asks him how much money he'll spend on his next car and the rough square footage of his home. He replies that he doesn't know.

The chair says that they are both categories that Facebook gathers data on and asks Mr Schroepher why.

He replies that ad preferences can be viewed by users.

"The key thing is if you don't like those categories... you can change or delete them at any time," he adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP's Alison Thewliss accuses the Home Office of a "litany of callous incompetences".

She asks when targets were introduced and who signed them off, wanting to know: "How is it possible the home secretary could not be aware of this?"

Amber Rudd says she's "confusing the difference between legal and illegal migrants" and the crackdown on illegal immigrants started under former governments.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott says that this is "another day, another revelation about the Windrush scandal".

She says that yesterday Ms Rudd says there wasn't a target, but the head of the Civil Service Union for the Home Office says there was.

The target for this month was 8,237, she states, and she asks if it is time for the home secretary to resign.

Ms Rudd says that she wants to make the "very clear distinction" between legal and illegal migrants. She says the Windrush "cohort is here legally".

She says that there are "some offices that are working with them", referring to targets, "I was not aware of them and I want to be aware of them".

She is now putting in place different measures "to make sure that happens".

House of Commons
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Home Secretary Amber Rudd says that everyone in the Commons agrees that legal and illegal immigrants must be treated differently.

She says this is why her department has worked on tackling illegal immigration in the UK.

She says she never agreed specific removal targets and has never supported a policy that puts targets ahead of people.

She adds there are local targets for performance management in the Home Office.

House of Commons
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The Commons comes to their urgent question, tabled by shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, on Home Office removal targets.

It emerged this morning that the Home Office immigration teams had been set targets for voluntary removals of migrants living in the UK as recently as December 2015.

On Wednesday, Amber Rudd denied that targets were used in a Home Affairs Committee meeting.

The chair of that committee, Yvette Cooper, told Ms Rudd that the issue needed to be “cleared up” quickly if the government wanted to avoid claims it had a “lack of grip” on the area.

On page 13 of this government report, external, it is evident that the government was exercising targets for voluntary removals.

Ms Rudd told the committee yesterday, in terms of the Windrush immigration row, "I bitterly, deeply regret that I didn't see it as more than individual cases that had gone wrong that needed addressing,", adding, "I didn't see it as a systemic issue until very recently".

House of Commons
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The SNP’s Peter Grant asks what discussions have been had with the Electoral Commission on the decision to publish election expenses in Northern Ireland submitted since July 2017.

Bridget Phillipson of the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission says that on 12 March 2018, this information was published this for the first time. She says she welcomes the transparency, works to bring forward expenses from 1 January 2014 and since.

Mr Grant says he welcomes this response as it confirms the view of some that election expenses of £425,000 were "laundered through the DUP" in Northern Ireland and spent in the rest of the UK in the lead up to the EU referendum.

Ms Phillipson says the Commission is unable to make comment on individual cases but urges the government to bring forward legislation to make these electoral returns transparent.

Select Committee
Parliament

Shortly, members of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee will take further evidence as part of their fake news inquiry.

They'll be hearing from Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technical officer.