Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending the move-on period for refugees from 28 to 56 days.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 9 December 2024, the Home Office operationalised a pilot to extend the grace period to 56 days to support local authorities during a period of increased asylum decision making and with the transition to eVisas.
An independent evaluation has been ongoing regarding the impact of this pilot. The evaluation—conducted by NatCen and RSM—has gathered insights from local authorities, devolved governments, service providers, and voluntary sector partners. It is assessing the impact of the extended move-on period, the introduction of eVisas, and associated initiatives such as Asylum Move On Liaison Officers and targeted funding for local authorities.
Evidence from the evaluation of Move On initiatives will inform government decisions around whether to make any changes to the move on period, future funding and resource deployment. It is important that we take our time to do this, considering overall net costs to taxpayers and impact on the accommodation estate, before making a decision on longer term policy.
From 1 September 2025, the Home Office has taken the decision to pause the 56 day move on period pilot for single adults in receipt of a positive asylum decision, with the exception of individuals who are pregnant, over the age of 65 or have a known/evidence disability, as defined by the 2010 Equality Act. This is to ensure that the asylum system continues to run efficiently, and to enable us to continue taking action both to reduce the overall number of asylum hotels in different communities, and the number of people staying in them.
We closely monitor the impact of all our policies, including the move on period, on the number and occupancy of asylum hotels, the overall costs of the asylum accommodation estate, the wider effect on local communities, and any pressures placed on local authorities and public amenities.
The Home Office has worked, and continues to work, with colleagues at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) to understand rough sleeping and homelessness pressures within local authorities in England. It continues to identify and make efficiencies in supporting newly recognised refugees integrate into society before their support is discontinued to mitigate the risk of homelessness.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time was for work visas for social care staff since July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics,and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose ofanswering this question at disproportionate cost.
However, it should be noted that those applying under the Health and Care Visabenefit from faster in-country processing times; are exempt from paying theImmigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and pay a lower fee for visas.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish data on the number of (a) criminal penalties issued, (b) prosecutions undertaken and (c) successful convictions secured for illegal working since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
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: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure Border Control facilities have back-up plans in place in case of IT (a) systems failures and (b) service provider outages.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Border IT systems have a range of measures in place to ensure they can continue to run critical services in the event of any major service issues. This includes critical incident, crisis and business continuity plans depending on the nature of the issue and what is impacted. It would not be appropriate to document the specific detail of those measures.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure Border Control IT systems operate with full functionality.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Border IT systems have a range of measures in place to ensure they can continue to run critical services in the event of any major service issues. This includes critical incident, crisis and business continuity plans depending on the nature of the issue and what is impacted. It would not be appropriate to document the specific detail of those measures.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the IT system at Sevington inland border facility was last updated.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Border IT systems have a range of measures in place to ensure they can continue to run critical services in the event of any major service issues. This includes critical incident, crisis and business continuity plans depending on the nature of the issue and what is impacted. It would not be appropriate to document the specific detail of those measures.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many enforcement actions have been taken against gig economy companies found to have engaged workers without the legal right to work in the United Kingdom since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold an estimate of the prevalence of illegalworking among people using app-based delivery platforms. The recent jointwork between the Office for National Statistics and the Home Office explainsthe complexities - Measuring illegal migration: our current view - Office forNational Statistics.Through the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, the Government isintroducing tough new laws to clamp down on illegal working, including in thefood delivery sector. This means that for the very first time, employmentchecks will be extended to cover businesses hiring gig economy and zero-hours workers in sectors like food delivery.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) operating system and (b) version of that operating system is used at (i) Sevington inland border facility and (ii) other border control posts.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Border IT systems have a range of measures in place to ensure they can continue to run critical services in the event of any major service issues. This includes critical incident, crisis and business continuity plans depending on the nature of the issue and what is impacted. It would not be appropriate to document the specific detail of those measures.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to launch its consultation on the future of the British National (Overseas) 5+1 Indefinite Leave to Remain visa route.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We will be consulting on the new settlement rules later this year.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
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 trial of extending the move on period for refugees from 28 to 56 days on the number of refugees who were rough sleeping during the trial.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 9 December 2024, the Home Office operationalised a pilot to extend the grace period to 56 days to support local authorities during a period of increased asylum decision making and with the transition to eVisas.
An independent evaluation has been ongoing regarding the impact of this pilot. The evaluation—conducted by NatCen and RSM—has gathered insights from local authorities, devolved governments, service providers, and voluntary sector partners. It is assessing the impact of the extended move-on period, the introduction of eVisas, and associated initiatives such as Asylum Move On Liaison Officers and targeted funding for local authorities.
Evidence from the evaluation of Move On initiatives will inform government decisions around whether to make any changes to the move on period, future funding and resource deployment. It is important that we take our time to do this, considering overall net costs to taxpayers and impact on the accommodation estate, before making a decision on longer term policy.
From 1 September 2025, the Home Office has taken the decision to pause the 56 day move on period pilot for single adults in receipt of a positive asylum decision, with the exception of individuals who are pregnant, over the age of 65 or have a known/evidence disability, as defined by the 2010 Equality Act. This is to ensure that the asylum system continues to run efficiently, and to enable us to continue taking action both to reduce the overall number of asylum hotels in different communities, and the number of people staying in them.
We closely monitor the impact of all our policies, including the move on period, on the number and occupancy of asylum hotels, the overall costs of the asylum accommodation estate, the wider effect on local communities, and any pressures placed on local authorities and public amenities.
The Home Office has worked, and continues to work, with colleagues at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) to understand rough sleeping and homelessness pressures within local authorities in England. It continues to identify and make efficiencies in supporting newly recognised refugees integrate into society before their support is discontinued to mitigate the risk of homelessness.