Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of legislating to provide that British National (Overseas) visa holders are not subject to immigration control; and what plans they have to grant holders of British National (Overseas) status a statutory right of abode in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK and is fully committed to the British National (Overseas) (BN(O) route, which will continue to welcome Hong Kongers. We confirmed in the earned settlement consultation document A Fairer Pathway to Settlement (CP1448) that those on the BN(O) route will retain a five-year route to settlement. We have no plans to legislate to create a right of abode for BN(O)s, or to otherwise exempt them from immigration control.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with the government of Denmark, or past officials or ministers from the government of Denmark, about the operation of the Danish asylum system.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Home Office officials engage regularly with international counterparts - including Denmark - to share best practice and inform development of asylum, returns and border security policy.
A delegation of senior officials from the Home Office were sent to Copenhagen earlier this year to learn about their interventions and draw lessons for the UK asylum and returns system.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to review the contract with Clearsprings Ready Homes for the provision of accommodation services at Wethersfield asylum centre following recent concerns raised about rats on the site and food quality.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
There are currently no plans to review the providers delivering services at the Wethersfield site.
The Wethersfield site complies with safety, security, health and wellbeing standards. Procedures are in place to fix maintenance and safety issues quickly.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the proportion of legal migrants to the UK who are net contributors to the UK's public finances.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The net impact on fiscal balances will vary across different migrant cohorts, influenced by factors such as employment rate, income level, age, and their propensity to use different types of public services.
The Government publishes estimates of the fiscal impact of groups of migrants in impact assessments accompanying changes to Immigration Rules. Home Office Impact Assessments and wider analysis can be found here: Migration analysis at the Home Office - GOV.UK
Immigration rules changes published in October 2025, included an Impact Assessment which set out the estimated per head net fiscal impacts of migrants by visa route.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 5 November (HL11321), by what date they will publish the data on how many asylum claims have been granted on the basis of fear of persecution in their country of origin because of sexual orientation for 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release on GOV.UK. Data on the number of grants where sexual orientation forms part of the claim is published in table SOC_00 of the ‘Asylum claims on the basis of sexual orientation’ dataset. The latest data relates to 2023.Updated published data from 2023 onwards is currently unavailable due to ongoing work as immigration data transitions to a new case working system and it will be included in a future edition of the Immigration System Statistics Release. There is currently no confirmed date for the next release of this data,but we intend to resume publishing in 2026. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics,as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics forfuture release.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her department’s policy paper entitled Restoring order and control: a statement on the Government’s asylum and returns policy, published on 17 November 2025, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed legislation on the duty for public bodies to prioritise vulnerable children, as set out in the Children Act 1989.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
In developing our policies, we will take full account of the specific needs and vulnerabilities of children and ensure these considerations inform policy development and relevant impact assessments. This will include consideration of our duties under Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act and how this relates to local authorities duties under the Children Act 1989.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many immigration offenders were released on bail and not detained in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not routinely publish the information you have requested. We are unable to provide this information, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce protections to ensure asylum seekers under the duress of criminal gangs are not punished for failing to disclose they are being influenced.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We recognise that that all asylum seekers are potentially vulnerable, and during the asylum decision making process, we aim to ensure that particularly vulnerable claimants are identified, the particular difficulties they may face in disclosing their experiences are given due consideration when assessing their credibility, and that they are given help in accessing appropriate services.
As the Home Secretary said in her statement of 17 November, we are committed to ensuring that victims of modern slavery are quickly identified and can access the necessary support through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which is the UK’s framework for identifying and supporting victims of exploitation and human trafficking. However, we are also determined to pursue and tackle any abuse of the system to ensure it is working effectively for victims.
NRM decision-makers are trained to recognise conditions which may cause delays or inconsistencies in an individual’s account, including trauma, barriers to disclosure, and a reluctance on the part of potential victim to self-identify themselves as such. Timing of disclosure is also a relevant factor in assessing a potential victim’s modern slavery case. We will strengthen this further to ensure that it is a key consideration when deciding on the credibility of a case, whilst bearing in mind the impact that trauma has on victims of these crimes.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Restoring order and control: a statement on the Government’s asylum and returns policy, published on 17 November 2025, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposed legislation on the legal duty for the Home Office to safeguard and promote the welfare of vulnerable children, as set out in the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
In developing our policies, we will take full account of the specific needs and vulnerabilities of children and ensure these considerations inform policy development and relevant impact assessments. This will include consideration of our duties under Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act and how this relates to local authorities duties under the Children Act 1989.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the proportion of Bangladeshi asylum seekers that have arrived via a) visas or b) other leave in the year to June 2025 on the asylum system.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government has already taken action to stem the surge in asylum claims from visa holders, including record numbers of credibility interviews and mandating a genuine study requirement for short term student routes. The number of student visa holders claiming asylum has reduced every quarter since this government took office.