Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether individuals from Hong Kong who have been granted asylum or refugee status will be required to meet a 20-year settlement requirement.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. We fully recognise the significant contribution that Hong Kongers have already made to the UK, and the role they will continue to play in the years ahead.
Those on the BN(O) visa route will receive a 5-year reduction under the new earned settlement model.
For those recognised as refugees, we will introduce a starting point of a 20-year qualifying period of settlement. Those who move from core protection onto the new core protection-work and study routes will be able to earn reductions.
Resettled refugees who have been granted protection and moved to the UK through official resettlement programmes are intended to start at 10 years, bringing them in line with other arrivals on planned migration routes.
Beyond this, full details of the new earned settlement model will be finalised following the currently ongoing public consultation.
Asked by: Freddie van Mierlo (Liberal Democrat - Henley and Thame)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of applying the (a) proposed salary threshold and (b) RQF Level 6 requirements for Skilled Worker visas retrospectively to individuals already in the UK under existing visa conditions when they apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, sets out the Government’s proposed model for earned settlement, and accompanies the current public consultation on settlement reform, which is open until 12 February 2026.
This proposes a qualification period for settlement of 15 years for Skilled Workers in professions below RQF Level 6.
It is also proposed that paying income tax on per annum earnings above £50,217 or £125,140 might be rewarded with reductions to that qualification period of five and seven years, respectively.
Further detail on earned settlement will be finalised following the conclusion of the public consultation. This will include detail on any transitional arrangements for people already in the UK.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the proportionality of arrests under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, particularly in cases involving low-level contact or where mental health or neurodivergence may be a factor.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not held by the Home Office.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether any unaccompanied migrant children are housed in hotels.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office closed the last of the Home Office-run unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children hotels on 31 January 2024 and since then arriving unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children have been accommodated by local authorities in line with their statutory duties.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, regarding Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November, what approach they plan to take to granting licences for (1) pharmacopoeial pyrogen testing, (2) pharmacopoeial adventitious agent testing, (3) skin irritation testing, (4) eye irritation testing, (5) skin sensitisation testing, (6) fish acute toxicity tests for chemicals registered under UK Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, and (7) other tests not listed in the 'baskets'.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office regulates under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) to assure compliance with the robust protections afforded to animals used in science. Licences for animal testing are only granted when applicants demonstrate compliance with the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement (the 3Rs). This means, animals may only be used where there is no non-animal alternative, the number of animals is minimised, and the most refined methods of testing are used to minimise harms.
On 11 November 2025, the government published “Replacing animals in science: a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods”. This strategy sets out a timeline to phase out specific animal tests including those referenced in the question.
Of these, tests 1-5 are in Basket 1 (where mature replacement technologies exist), and test 6 is in Basket 2 (where alternatives could be developed in the medium term). The strategy provides details on each of these tests. The government is committed to supporting the development and adoption of alternative methods for other tests wherever possible.
Until these deadlines are reached, the Home Office will continue to apply the same rigorous licensing framework to all project licence applications proposing these tests, ensuring animals are only used where no validated non-animal alternative exists.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals arrested under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 were also arrested for other offences at the same time in each year since that Act's commencement; and in how many of those cases the other offences were subsequently dropped.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not held by the Home Office.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals were arrested under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 in each year since its introduction; and how many of those arrests resulted in no further action or were not charged.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not held by the Home Office.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals were arrested under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 in the most recent year for which data is available, broken down by (a) age, (b) gender and (c) ethnicity.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not held by the Home Office.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many arrests under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 were made by each police force in England and Wales in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not held by the Home Office.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, by financial year, sex, ethnicity, age group, offence group, and Police Force Area, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
However, data is collected by broader offence group, e.g. ‘Violence against the person’, therefore data on arrests for more specific offences such as those under section 1 of the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 are not available
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's news story entitled Honour-based abuse crackdown in raft of new measures, published on the 26 August 2025, how many of the 2,755 honour-based abuse related offences recorded by police in England and Wales related to cases in which (a) men and (b) boys were victims.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
'Honour’-based abuse is a serious form of abuse that nobody should have to experience. This is why we are tackling it through our mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade.
To prevent and respond effectively to forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) it is essential that we understand the prevalence of these crimes.
Building on the feasibility study conducted by the University of Birmingham in 2023/24, the Home Office has commissioned a pilot research project to support the development of a national prevalence estimate for forced marriage and female genital mutilation. This work is already underway.