Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Written Statement of 2 March 2026 on Asylum changes, HCWS1373, what recent steps her Department has taken to introduce community sponsorship.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
In the Restoring Order and Control policy statement, the Government committed to transforming its approach to safe and legal routes. This included the creation of a named sponsorship scheme to enable community groups to sponsor refugees and displaced persons.
Work is underway to deliver the named community sponsorship route. The Government is working with a range of stakeholders to design and develop the new pathway.
Further details, including timeframes for the launch of the route, will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 3 March 2026 to question 115217, what timeline the Government is working to in considering the best way to measure the prevalence of VAWG among children and young people in the Freedom from Violence and Abuse Strategy.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
As stated in response to your question on 3rd March, we recognise the importance of understanding the experiences of children and young people. As such the performance framework in the Freedom from Violence and Abuse Strategy includes a sub-metric on the prevalence of VAWG among children and young people and work is ongoing to determine the most robust and appropriate way to measure this. We will continue to develop this approach as the wider framework evolves.
Asked by: Monica Harding (Liberal Democrat - Esher and Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of Chevening scholars from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan have claimed asylum in the United Kingdom following the completion of their scholarships.
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 people claiming asylum where the latest leave held prior to claim was a study visa is published in table Asy_D01a of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’. The number of student entry clearance visas issued is published in table Vis_D02 of the 'Entry clearance visas datasets'.
A full Impact Assessment has been published for the Visa Brake policy; see Table 1 for historic volumes of asylum claims linked to visa for the relevant nationalities and routes in scope of the Brake.
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: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the administrative and staffing resources required within the Home Office to review the protection needs of refugees at 30-month intervals.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We want to encourage refugees to integrate more fully into the communities providing them sanctuary and we will encourage refugees to switch out of the Core Protection route wherever possible into a new, bespoke work and study route. In addition to the wider the socio-economic advantages, this will also enable them to access family reunion and settlement rights with new fees and conditions in accordance with the rules of that route.
We are committed to ensuring our policies are sustainable and do not place unnecessary burdens on the taxpayer, and this policy is no different. In terms of resources and processing, only those who do remain on Core Protection will have their protection needs regularly reviewed. Reviews will be targeted based on objective country information, and any other new information that comes to light, allowing us to make the most efficient use of resources. We will continue to monitor staffing levels and will deploy our workforce flexibly subject to business needs as we have done in the past.
The approach to reviewing status will be efficient and targeted; we will reassess where country conditions or personal circumstances have changed significantly.
To do this we will build on the efficiencies that have already seen record levels of initial decisions being made, including use of AI, such as our policy search tool or case summarisation which are already assisting asylum decision makers.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what modelling they have undertaken of the likely impact of 30-monthly reviews on asylum decision backlogs and processing times.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We want to encourage refugees to integrate more fully into the communities providing them sanctuary and we will encourage refugees to switch out of the Core Protection route wherever possible into a new, bespoke work and study route. In addition to the wider the socio-economic advantages, this will also enable them to access family reunion and settlement rights with new fees and conditions in accordance with the rules of that route.
We are committed to ensuring our policies are sustainable and do not place unnecessary burdens on the taxpayer, and this policy is no different. In terms of resources and processing, only those who do remain on Core Protection will have their protection needs regularly reviewed. Reviews will be targeted based on objective country information, and any other new information that comes to light, allowing us to make the most efficient use of resources. We will continue to monitor staffing levels and will deploy our workforce flexibly subject to business needs as we have done in the past.
The approach to reviewing status will be efficient and targeted; we will reassess where country conditions or personal circumstances have changed significantly.
To do this we will build on the efficiencies that have already seen record levels of initial decisions being made, including use of AI, such as our policy search tool or case summarisation which are already assisting asylum decision makers.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of women killed in domestic homicides in their own homes.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This Government is committed to protecting women and girls in all environments, public or private. The recently published ‘Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy’ sets out the steps we are taking to drive system-wide change, so that no life is lost to violence and abuse that could have been prevented.
The Home Office is working to develop the evidence base on domestic abuse related deaths by funding the Domestic Homicide Project, which captures information all domestic abuse related deaths, including homicides, from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The project aims to improve our understanding of these deaths and identify how the response to domestic abuse can be improved. Further information can be found at the following link: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/.
In addition, Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) 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. We are currently reforming the DHR process to ensure learning is effectively identified and implemented to improve policy and practice and ultimately, prevent future deaths.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent children from being exploited by drug gangs in (a) Leicester, (b) the East Midlands and (c) the UK.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This Government is committed to tackling child criminal exploitation and going after the gangs who are luring children into violence and crime. That is why we are introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation (CCE) and new civil preventative orders (CCE prevention orders) in the Crime and Policing Bill to target those responsible for criminally exploiting children and to help ensure that children are identified as victims and receive the support and protection they need.
CCE prevention orders are designed to specifically target the criminal exploitation of children and will include tailored restrictions and/or requirements the court deems necessary to manage the risk posed to a specific child or children generally. The orders will be able to impose a notification requirement, on the subject of the order, where the court deems it necessary. This will require someone to notify their name and address (and any subsequent changes) to the local police force, to ensure that police are aware of, and able to monitor, individuals who pose a CCE threat.
County Lines is the most violent model of drug supply and a harmful form of child criminal exploitation. Through the County Lines Programme, we continue to target exploitative drug dealing gangs and break the organised crime groups behind the trade. Since July 2024, law enforcement activity through the County Lines Programme taskforces has resulted in more than 3,000 deal lines closed, 8,200 arrests, (including the arrest and subsequent charge of over 1,600 deal line holders) 4,300 safeguarding referrals of children and vulnerable people, and 900 knives seized.
While the majority of county lines originate from the areas covered by the Metropolitan Police Service, West Midlands Police, Merseyside Police, Greater Manchester Police and West Yorkshire Police, we recognise that this is a national issue which affects all forces. This is why we fund the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC) to monitor the intelligence picture and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response. The County Lines Programme forces (MPS, West Midlands, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and British Transport Police) also regularly conduct joint operations with importing forces. In addition, we have established a dedicated fund which provides local police forces, including Leicestershire and other forces in the East Midlands, with additional funding and support to tackle county lines.
As part of the County Lines Programme we also provide specialist support for children and young people to escape county lines and child criminal exploitation. Since July 2024 more than 620 children and young people have received dedicated specialist support through our county lines support service. To support parents, we also fund a national confidential helpline and support service, SafeCall, for young people and their families or carers affected by county lines exploitation.
In addition, the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s framework for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery and human trafficking. This includes victims of criminal and sexual exploitation. First Responder Organisations (FROs), including the police and local authorities, have a statutory duty to refer any child who is a potential victim of modern slavery and human trafficking into the NRM to ensure they are effectively identified and supported.
Whilst child victims of exploitation are supported by local authorities who have primary responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, the Government-funded County Lines Programme and Independent Child Trafficking Guardian (ICTG) service provide additional support. The ICTG service currently covers two-thirds of local authorities across England and Wales, including the East Midlands, and we are in the process of expanding the service to provide national coverage across England and Wales, which will begin in 2027.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made towards meeting the Government’s target to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
“Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls” was published on 18th December 2025 and sets out the strategic direction and concrete actions to prevent violence and abuse, pursue perpetrators, and support victims, and to deliver our commitment to halve VAWG in a decade.
Since July 2024, the Home Office has delivered a series of measures to tackle these crimes including: establishing the National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection; commencing the rollout of Raneem’s Law to strengthen protections for victims of domestic abuse; introducing Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in the first pilot areas; announcing £53 million of funding over four years to expand the Drive Project across England and Wales; and rolling out the Steps to Safety referral initiative.
Throughout 2026, we will begin delivering many of the commitments set out in the Strategy. This includes the publication of new statutory guidance on Domestic Homicide Reviews, as well as the further rollout of Raneem’s Law to improve the police response to victims and survivors of domestic abuse. Together, these measures represent significant steps towards meeting our ambition to halve VAWG within the next decade.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what metrics are being used to measure progress on reducing violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We will measure progress against our ambition to halve VAWG is through a headline metric of the combined prevalence estimate of the proportion of people (aged 16 and over) who experienced any of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking in the previous 12 months, as measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Given the complexity and breadth of these crimes, a single metric cannot fully capture progress. We will therefore track a set of supporting headline metrics, focused on female homicide, repeat domestic abuse, and the prevalence of sexual harassment.
These measures will be underpinned by a wider range of sub-metrics, such as measures of online harms, to assess progress across government against the pillars of the Strategy.
Further detail on our performance framework can be found on page 70 of Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many additional caseworkers they estimate will be required to conduct periodic reviews of refugees' status, and whether additional funding has been allocated for this purpose.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We want to encourage refugees to integrate more fully into the communities providing them sanctuary and we will encourage refugees to switch out of the Core Protection route wherever possible into a new, bespoke work and study route. In addition to the wider the socio-economic advantages, this will also enable them to access family reunion and settlement rights with new fees and conditions in accordance with the rules of that route.
We are committed to ensuring our policies are sustainable and do not place unnecessary burdens on the taxpayer, and this policy is no different. In terms of resources and processing, only those who do remain on Core Protection will have their protection needs regularly reviewed. Reviews will be targeted based on objective country information, and any other new information that comes to light, allowing us to make the most efficient use of resources. We will continue to monitor staffing levels and will deploy our workforce flexibly subject to business needs as we have done in the past.
The approach to reviewing status will be efficient and targeted; we will reassess where country conditions or personal circumstances have changed significantly.
To do this we will build on the efficiencies that have already seen record levels of initial decisions being made, including use of AI, such as our policy search tool or case summarisation which are already assisting asylum decision makers.