Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure food delivery companies carry out appropriate right-to-work checks on (a) subcontractors and (b) self-employed workers in their supply chains.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Clamping down on illegal working is a critical part of this government’s Plan for Change, and as part of the strategy to tackle Organised Immigration Crime. Ensuring fairness, order and control within the immigration and asylum system.
Where an employer is found to have employed someone without the right to work, fines will be levied against the business. The Home Office has no current plan to further raise these fines at present.
Under this government has been a significant increase in immigration enforcement activity in the UK, including more than 8,000 arrests during illegal working visits in the year up to October 2025 – a 63% increase on the same period 12 months prior.
The Government is extending the Right to Work Scheme to ensure companies conduct right to work checks to prevent illegal working when they contract workers to provide services under their company name, this will include agency workers or self-employed individuals working in the gig economy. These new measures are included in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act.
These new legislative measures will restrict the ability of employers to take advantage of illegal workers and encourage businesses to provide work opportunities to only those permitted to work in the UK. It will provide parity across industries and will set a level playing field for businesses to uphold their responsibilities to prevent illegal working in the UK.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to further raise fines levied against businesses found to be employing illegal workers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Clamping down on illegal working is a critical part of this government’s Plan for Change, and as part of the strategy to tackle Organised Immigration Crime. Ensuring fairness, order and control within the immigration and asylum system.
Where an employer is found to have employed someone without the right to work, fines will be levied against the business. The Home Office has no current plan to further raise these fines at present.
Under this government has been a significant increase in immigration enforcement activity in the UK, including more than 8,000 arrests during illegal working visits in the year up to October 2025 – a 63% increase on the same period 12 months prior.
The Government is extending the Right to Work Scheme to ensure companies conduct right to work checks to prevent illegal working when they contract workers to provide services under their company name, this will include agency workers or self-employed individuals working in the gig economy. These new measures are included in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act.
These new legislative measures will restrict the ability of employers to take advantage of illegal workers and encourage businesses to provide work opportunities to only those permitted to work in the UK. It will provide parity across industries and will set a level playing field for businesses to uphold their responsibilities to prevent illegal working in the UK.
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 asylum caseworkers have (1) left and (2) joined her Department since July 2024.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of full time equivalent (FTE) asylum caseworkers employed at the Home Office per month until September 2025 is published in the ASY_05(M) tab of the published migration transparency statistics, located here: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (Immigration and Protection data; July to September 2025)
At the end of July 2024, there were 2,455 FTE asylum caseworkers.
The latest published data shows that at the end of September 2025, there were 2,113 FTE asylum caseworkers. Attrition will have occurred since that time.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which police forces carry naloxone on the front line.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is supportive of police carriage and administration of naloxone - a lifesaving medicine that reverses the effects of opioid overdose.
The latest available data on which police forces carry naloxone can be found here: Police carriage of naloxone - monitoring data - GOV.UK.
The NPCC and the Home Office are in ongoing dialogue with all police forces on this topic.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2025 to Question 91895 on Undocumented Migrants: Nationality and Proof of Identity, and with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum of 17 November, Official Report column 468, for what reason that information is not available in an easily accessible format; if he will make it his policy to collect that information in an easily accessible format, particularly with reference to illegal arrivals on small boats; and whether he still plans to write to the Rt hon. Member for New Forest East with the specific percentages.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
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.
During an oral contribution in Parliament on 17 November I committed to follow up in writing in reference to a question posed by the Rt Hon Member and plan to do this as soon as possible.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Restoring Order and Control: A statement on the government’s asylum and returns policy, updated on 21 November 2025, if she will make it her policy to implement safeguards as part of the proposed refugee sponsorship reforms.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is committed to transforming our approach to safe and legal routes, including how the UK offers opportunities to refugees and relevant local authorities. Work is underway to operationalise these new routes, and further details will be provided in due course.
Safeguarding requirements are already in place under the government’s existing schemes. This includes the current Community Sponsorship scheme, where all sponsors must have robust safeguarding procedures in place.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individual properties are being used as dispersal accommodation for asylum seekers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on the number of asylum seekers at a regional and local level. The department does not publish data at a property level, but at a person level.
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of supported asylum seekers. These statistics can be found at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help tackle modern slavery in Devon.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK is committed to ensuring victims can access the necessary support to assist in their recovery from their experiences of exploitation or trafficking.
Adult victim support is provided on a national basis, across England and Wales. The Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract provides specialist support to adult victims of exploitation and trafficking who have been identified through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).
The MSVCC provides safe accommodation where necessary, financial support and a support worker to help victims access other support services such as the NHS and legal aid.
With regards to support for child victims, local authorities are responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area.
The Government-funded Independent Child Trafficking Guardianship (ICTG) service provides advocacy and support to child victims of exploitation and trafficking who have been referred to the NRM. In September 2025, we launched an invitation-to-tender for the national contract which will expand the service to provide national coverage in England and Wales, including Devon. The tender process is now underway.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support victims of modern slavery in Devon.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK is committed to ensuring victims can access the necessary support to assist in their recovery from their experiences of exploitation or trafficking.
Adult victim support is provided on a national basis, across England and Wales. The Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract provides specialist support to adult victims of exploitation and trafficking who have been identified through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).
The MSVCC provides safe accommodation where necessary, financial support and a support worker to help victims access other support services such as the NHS and legal aid.
With regards to support for child victims, local authorities are responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area.
The Government-funded Independent Child Trafficking Guardianship (ICTG) service provides advocacy and support to child victims of exploitation and trafficking who have been referred to the NRM. In September 2025, we launched an invitation-to-tender for the national contract which will expand the service to provide national coverage in England and Wales, including Devon. The tender process is now underway.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made on reducing the prevalence of modern slavery in the UK.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Modern slavery crimes are often described as “hidden” crimes: we know these crimes to be underreported and difficult to detect. For this reason, we do not know with certainty the true prevalence of the crime or the number of victims in the UK. It is a vicious crime: victims of modern slavery may experience multiple forms of abuse and exploitation, usually involving some element of coercion or abuse of power. This means that victims may not recognise themselves as such or may be too traumatised or in fear of their exploiters or the authorities to report the crime or support prosecutions.
The UK Government continues to work with a wide range of partners to raise awareness, increase resilience, and reduce public tolerance of exploitative behaviour. We have worked closely with NGOs and law enforcement partners to develop an Action Plan on Modern Slavery. The Action Plan sets out the Department’s commitments to tackling Modern Slavery for the 25/26 financial year and was an agreed objective from the 2024 Anti-Slavery Week roundtables. It includes actions around prevention of modern slavery both in the UK and upstream overseas, including our work on tackling forced labour.