Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what action is the Home Secretary taking to implement the recommendations of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration report on age assessments to ensure that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are properly safeguarded.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office accepted all eight of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) age assessment recommendations which were designed to improve training, guidance, assurance, resources and communication.
Initial age decisions were a primary focus of the report and, to date, the Home Office has:
The National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) was also a key focus of the inspection and improvements have been made to assurance frameworks to further ensure age assessments are conducted consistently, robustly and in line with both legislative requirements and best practice.
We have also focused on improving our use of technology. The NAAB online referral portal will also be going live in the next few months which will improve access for local authorities by providing a new, streamlined route for referring age assessment cases to the NAAB. This new technology will deliver operational efficiencies and enable referrals to be made more easily and quickly.
The Home Office has improved the quality of age assessment data. To strengthen transparency, the publication of age assessment official statistics will resume as part of the Immigration Statistical Release scheduled for 21 May 2026. This release will include new disaggregated data on the outcomes of age disputes. Over time, this will provide a more complete national picture, make clearer distinctions between stages of the process and allow improved monitoring.
We continue to develop proposals on how we can share more information with local authorities, where appropriate to support effective planning and safeguarding. We are also engaging directly with stakeholders on progress made against the recommendations to ensure they are delivered in a way that continues to strengthen protections for children.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help implement the recommendations of the Cranston inquiry to help prevent avoidable deaths in the channel.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The loss of life from the fatal incident of 23/24 November 2021 was an appalling tragedy, and our thoughts remain with the survivors, the victims and loved ones who suffered as a result.
The response to the Cranston Inquiry report is being led by the Department for Transport (DfT). The Home Office is engaging with the DfT on the response to those recommendations which are pertinent to its area of policy.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of people that entered the UK under the Gaza medical evacuation scheme have applied for asylum.
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 by nationality is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’, while data on the number of people claiming asylum in the UK by route of entry to the UK, and by latest category of leave prior to claim for those who entered on a visa or with other leave, is published in table Asy_D01a.
The requested information on asylum claims from individuals who entered the UK under the Gaza medical evacuation scheme is not available from published statistics.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
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 reinstating family reunion visa routes for Iranians.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The family reunion route was suspended to ease the pressures that local authorities and public services have been placed under due to the recent significant increase in people arriving under this route in recent years. Other family routes remain available including Appendix FM, and cases lodged before the suspension continue to be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Currently, Iranian nationals who wish to come to the UK can do so via the existing range of routes available. Any application for a UK visa will be assessed against the requirements of the Immigration Rules.
Immediate family members of British citizens and those settled in the UK who wish to come and live in the UK can apply under one of the existing family visa routes.
There are also routes available for dependents of those who are in the UK on most work routes or certain postgraduate student routes.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many businesses were found guilty of employing illegal workers, and how much were they fined in 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Information on illegal working civil penalty statistics has been published since 2016 as part of the Home Office Immigration Enforcement Transparency Data. This can be found at immigration-enforcement-data-oct-dec-2025 on tab CP02.
This publication covers the period up to 31 December 2025 and includes both limited companies and sole traders.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to her written statement of 2 March 2026 on Asylum changes, by what date her department plans to have operationalised a Named Community Sponsorship scheme for refugee resettlement.
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.
Further details, including timeframes for the launch of the route, will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to her written statement of 2 March 2026 on Asylum changes, what is her proposed timeline for establishing a Named Community Sponsorship scheme.
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.
Further details, including timeframes for the launch of the route, will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield Hallam)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what alternative accommodation will be provided to women and children asylum seekers once they are removed from hotels.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Home Office officials keep the asylum accommodation estate under continual review. As part of this estate management, operational adjustments are made on an ongoing basis to ensure sufficient and suitable capacity is maintained to meet expected levels of demand.
As the department reduces its reliance on hotel accommodation, individuals and families, including women and children, are moved into more appropriate longer term forms of asylum accommodation within the existing estate. This includes dispersal accommodation and, where required, other contingency arrangements that meet the necessary standards for safety and suitability.
The Home Office is committed to ensuring that destitute asylum seekers are provided with safe, secure and appropriate accommodation, and that they are treated with dignity throughout the asylum process.
In line with the Allocation of Accommodation policy, accommodation is offered on a no choice basis across the United Kingdom. Where an individual has specific, acute needs that require them to be accommodated in a particular area, established processes supported by Migrant Help and asylum support casework teams are in place to consider such circumstances.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she will respond to the letter of 3 March 2026 from the hon. Member for Inverness, Skye, & West Ross-shire on Cameron Barracks.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Minister for Border Security & Asylum responded on 31 March 2026.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what oversight mechanisms are in place to monitor the use of ACS and APS tools; and whether any independent audits have been (a) conducted and (b) planned.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
All members of the Department were required to complete a mandatory 'AI for all' learning package in 2025. All caseworkers were given comprehensive training on the use of APS before it was operationalised. Both ACS and APS underwent user acceptance testing and evaluation was conducted following pilots of both tools.
A specific inbox was set up for Decision Makers to feed back any issues found with the tool. All questions asked of the tool, have and will be logged, and are auditable. Subject Matter Expert (SME) testing continues after operationalisation, in conjunction with the CPIT (Country Policy & Information Team) for APS.
ACS has not yet been operationalised, but our Analysis and Insight team plan to conduct further follow up evaluations in due course.