Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what mechanisms are in place to monitor compliance by local areas with statutory guidance on the timely commissioning and completion of Domestic Homicide Reviews.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Domestic homicide reviews (DHR) offer a vital opportunity for national and local agencies, local communities and society as a whole to learn lessons from domestic abuse related deaths and treat every death as preventable. However, whilst the Government remains committed to the fundamental principles of the DHR process, I recognise that there is room for improvement and that more must be done to improve how DHRs are currently conducted.
DHRs are the responsibility of local Community Safety Partnerships. The Home Office provides guidance through statutory guidance; however, it does not get involved in local processes or individual cases.
The Home Office has been undertaking a programme of work to reform DHRs. The aim of these reforms is to increase efficiency, enhance accountability, and ensure that recommendations are disseminated and embedded swiftly. The Home Office is planning to publish updated statutory guidance to ensure that a more effective and streamlined process is put in place going forward. This is due to be published within the coming months.
Historically there have been significant delays in the DHR quality assurance (QA) process. To resolve this, we have now reformed the QA system and launched a new DHR Quality Assurance Board, appointing three new public office holders. The Board members bring decades of frontline experience and are experts in domestic abuse with specialisms in policing, stalking, ‘honor’-based abuse, and economic abuse. This replaces the former QA Panel and is designed to streamline review procedures, ensure consistent, high-quality feedback, and provide Community Safety Partnerships with more timely responses going forward.
Each DHR is unique, and therefore the timescales are variable, however, the statutory guidance is clear that local areas should be proportionate with scope and time frames and that any delays are clearly accounted for in the final DHR. Due to the variety of different cases, we are not able to comment on specific delays in each case.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Domestic Homicide Reviews are launched as soon as possible.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Domestic homicide reviews (DHR) offer a vital opportunity for national and local agencies, local communities and society as a whole to learn lessons from domestic abuse related deaths and treat every death as preventable. However, whilst the Government remains committed to the fundamental principles of the DHR process, I recognise that there is room for improvement and that more must be done to improve how DHRs are currently conducted.
DHRs are the responsibility of local Community Safety Partnerships. The Home Office provides guidance through statutory guidance; however, it does not get involved in local processes or individual cases.
The Home Office has been undertaking a programme of work to reform DHRs. The aim of these reforms is to increase efficiency, enhance accountability, and ensure that recommendations are disseminated and embedded swiftly. The Home Office is planning to publish updated statutory guidance to ensure that a more effective and streamlined process is put in place going forward. This is due to be published within the coming months.
Historically there have been significant delays in the DHR quality assurance (QA) process. To resolve this, we have now reformed the QA system and launched a new DHR Quality Assurance Board, appointing three new public office holders. The Board members bring decades of frontline experience and are experts in domestic abuse with specialisms in policing, stalking, ‘honor’-based abuse, and economic abuse. This replaces the former QA Panel and is designed to streamline review procedures, ensure consistent, high-quality feedback, and provide Community Safety Partnerships with more timely responses going forward.
Each DHR is unique, and therefore the timescales are variable, however, the statutory guidance is clear that local areas should be proportionate with scope and time frames and that any delays are clearly accounted for in the final DHR. Due to the variety of different cases, we are not able to comment on specific delays in each case.
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the reasons are for the time taken for the commissioning of Domestic Homicide Reviews, including (a) resource levels, (b) police investigations, (c) coronial proceedings and (d) capacity of independent chairs.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Domestic homicide reviews (DHR) offer a vital opportunity for national and local agencies, local communities and society as a whole to learn lessons from domestic abuse related deaths and treat every death as preventable. However, whilst the Government remains committed to the fundamental principles of the DHR process, I recognise that there is room for improvement and that more must be done to improve how DHRs are currently conducted.
DHRs are the responsibility of local Community Safety Partnerships. The Home Office provides guidance through statutory guidance; however, it does not get involved in local processes or individual cases.
The Home Office has been undertaking a programme of work to reform DHRs. The aim of these reforms is to increase efficiency, enhance accountability, and ensure that recommendations are disseminated and embedded swiftly. The Home Office is planning to publish updated statutory guidance to ensure that a more effective and streamlined process is put in place going forward. This is due to be published within the coming months.
Historically there have been significant delays in the DHR quality assurance (QA) process. To resolve this, we have now reformed the QA system and launched a new DHR Quality Assurance Board, appointing three new public office holders. The Board members bring decades of frontline experience and are experts in domestic abuse with specialisms in policing, stalking, ‘honor’-based abuse, and economic abuse. This replaces the former QA Panel and is designed to streamline review procedures, ensure consistent, high-quality feedback, and provide Community Safety Partnerships with more timely responses going forward.
Each DHR is unique, and therefore the timescales are variable, however, the statutory guidance is clear that local areas should be proportionate with scope and time frames and that any delays are clearly accounted for in the final DHR. Due to the variety of different cases, we are not able to comment on specific delays in each case.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the conflict with Iran on the number of asylum applications from Iranian nationals; and what steps she is taking to manage the anticipated change.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge. Those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety.
If someone is in the UK and circumstances in their home country change, such that it is no longer safe for them to return home, they can claim asylum. The Home Office constantly monitors global events and prepares for a range of scenarios to ensure the asylum system can respond effectively.
We are closely monitoring the fast-moving situation in Iran and we continue to register, interview and decide protection claims from Iranian nationals in the UK as normal. All asylum and human rights claims will be carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations.
We have already taken steps to streamline the asylum process and increase our efficiency. As per normal operational practice we can deploy decision makers flexibly to support wider casework demands across Asylum & Human Rights Operations and the wider Asylum Group within the Home Office. Any additional asylum claims will be processed in the usual way and each individual assessment will be made against the background of relevant case law and the latest available country of origin information. Our assessment of the situation of a given group in a given country, is set out in the relevant Country Policy and Information Note. We keep all country guidance relating to asylum claims under constant review so we can respond to emerging issues such as challenges in the Middle East. The CPIN for Iran is available on GOV.UK at: Iran: country policy and information notes - GOV.UK. We will not remove anyone to their own or any other country where they have a well-founded fear or persecution or are at risk of serious harm.
Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to introduce an expedited visa and scholarship scheme for at‑risk Iranian activists, journalists and human‑rights defenders seeking sanctuary and study in the UK.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is monitoring the situation in Iran and the impacts it will have.
The UK has not introduced a bespoke visa route in response to the conflict. Existing visa routes remain available and Iranian nationals who wish to come to the UK can apply to do so via these routes.
Any application for a UK visa will be assessed against the requirements of the Immigration Rules. We advise people to consider the most appropriate visa route for their own circumstances.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of enforcement of the requirement that the level of DBS checks must be proportionate to the role; what steps she is taking to strengthen compliance and enforcement; and whether she plans to introduce additional (a) powers, (b) guidance and (c) penalties to prevent inappropriate requests for higher-level checks.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Employers can only request higher‑level checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) where the role meets the eligibility criteria set out in legislation. Standard checks are available only for positions listed in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, and access to enhanced checks requires inclusion in both the Exceptions Order and the Police Act 1997 regulations.
Applications for standard and enhanced checks must be submitted to the DBS via Registered Bodies (RBs) who play a key part in identifying the correct level of check for individual job roles. The DBS invests substantial resources into supporting the work of RBs and carries out routine assurance exercises with all RBs on a rolling basis.
When this process identifies non-compliance, the DBS sets deadlines for corrective actions and monitors progress. Over the past two years, all RBs have demonstrated compliance within required timescales, and no suspensions or deregistrations have been necessary. If non-compliance were to persist, the DBS would consider sanctions against the RB, including suspending individual signatories or the RB as a whole.
The DBS also provides a growing level of support to service-users to promote improved understanding of eligibility and the purposes for which checks may be used.
The Government keeps filtering rules and eligibility under continuous review. On 2 December 2025, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that the Government will consider opportunities to simplify the criminal records regime to ensure it is clear and proportionate, particularly in relation to childhood offences. The Home Office and Ministry of Justice are working together to consider next steps.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent employers from requesting Standard or Enhanced DBS checks where a basic check would be sufficient; what assessment her Department has made of the grounds on which higher-level checks are requested; and what steps her Department is taking where employers are routinely requesting a higher level of check than is required for a role.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Employers can only request higher‑level checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) where the role meets the eligibility criteria set out in legislation. Standard checks are available only for positions listed in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, and access to enhanced checks requires inclusion in both the Exceptions Order and the Police Act 1997 regulations.
Applications for standard and enhanced checks must be submitted to the DBS via Registered Bodies (RBs) who play a key part in identifying the correct level of check for individual job roles. The DBS invests substantial resources into supporting the work of RBs and carries out routine assurance exercises with all RBs on a rolling basis.
When this process identifies non-compliance, the DBS sets deadlines for corrective actions and monitors progress. Over the past two years, all RBs have demonstrated compliance within required timescales, and no suspensions or deregistrations have been necessary. If non-compliance were to persist, the DBS would consider sanctions against the RB, including suspending individual signatories or the RB as a whole.
The DBS also provides a growing level of support to service-users to promote improved understanding of eligibility and the purposes for which checks may be used.
The Government keeps filtering rules and eligibility under continuous review. On 2 December 2025, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that the Government will consider opportunities to simplify the criminal records regime to ensure it is clear and proportionate, particularly in relation to childhood offences. The Home Office and Ministry of Justice are working together to consider next steps.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Chevening scholars have claimed asylum in the UK in each of the last ten years by nationality.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of asylum claims by nationality and the number of people claiming asylum where the latest leave held prior to claim was a study visa is published in table Asy_D01 and Asy_D01a of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’. The number of student entry clearance visas issued, broken down by nationality, is published in table Vis_D02 of the 'Entry clearance visas datasets'.
The requested information on asylum claims from Chevening scholars is not available from published statistics.
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 for future release.
Asked by: Jayne Kirkham (Labour (Co-op) - Truro and Falmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has assessed the merits of lowering the earnings requirement for a family visa.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) was raised in April 2024 from £18,600 to £29,000. This was the first time it had been increased since its introduction.
To help ensure we reach the right balance and have a solid evidence base for any change, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) was commissioned to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules.
Conducting a full review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system. The MAC has published their independent review of the financial requirements across the family routes.
There is no set date for when we will respond to the MAC report. However, the MAC’s recommendations are being considered in detail alongside the work being carried out as a result of the Immigration White Paper (Restoring control over the immigration system: white paper - GOV.UK) which made clear that family migration would be reformed to tackle the over complex family immigration arrangements, including the financial requirements. An announcement will be made in due course.
Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to publish policy guidance following the end of the consultation on proposed earned settlement reforms.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The consultation for the earned settlement model, as proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, was open to the public between 20 November 2025 and 12 February 2026.
We are now reviewing and analysing all responses received. This analysis will help inform the development of the final earned settlement model.
Once the final model has been decided, the Government will communicate the outcome publicly. As with all significant policy changes, the proposals will be subject to both economic and equality impact assessments.