Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Act 2025 on LGBT individuals fleeing the new glorification and financing offences in Senegal; and what their reasoning is for the temporary 30-month protection status for claimants impacted by the criminalisation of LGBT individuals in their home countries.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Under s51 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, a person convicted overseas is only presumed to have committed a particularly serious crime where the act constituting the offence would have constituted a Schedule 3 sex offence in the UK.
The change to reduce refugee permission to stay to 30 months is the first step towards implementing the “core protection” model, announced as part of the reforms last autumn. These changes apply to all adults and accompanied children claiming asylum from 2 March 2026, including but not limited to those who have a well-founded fear of persecution or are at risk of serious harm on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Core Protection will allow those who are at risk to remain in the UK as long as necessary, whilst it is unsafe for them to return.
Refugees will be able to switch into a bespoke Protection, Work and Study route to access family reunion and settlement rights with new fees and conditions in accordance with the rules of that route. This will enable them to earn down their length of time before they can settle in the UK. This route will not include a safe, return review.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of their consultation titled Family Returns: Reforming Asylum Support and Enforcing Family Returns, how many families in receipt of asylum support under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 are currently classified as "appeals rights exhausted".
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Data relating to people receiving section 95 support is published on GOV.UK as part of the immigration system statistics quarterly release. You can find the latest information in the data set from year ending December 2025 ‘Asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support’. We do not currently publish data on those in receipt of support to the level of their family and appeal status.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Child Poverty Strategy, published on 5 December 2025, what steps they are taking to ensure that the measures to support newborn babies, including voucher schemes, are accessible to families seeking asylum who use an Aspen debit card.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
In addition to the standard weekly allowance, additional financial support is available during pregnancy and for families with babies and young children, including higher weekly payments and a one-off maternity payment to help meet the costs of caring for a newborn baby. These payments are accessible through the Aspen card.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of whether Jeffery Epstein was (a) passing information to the Russian Government and (b) was otherwise compromised by Russian hostile actors.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
It would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on matters of intelligence or national security. It is the longstanding policy of government not to comment on such issues.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 38 of the policy paper entitled Protecting What Matters, CP 1540, published on 9 March 2026, how she plans to update the 2024 engagement principles; and whether there will be a public consultation.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
This Government takes extremism very seriously and we have the necessary tools and powers needed to address this issue. We are embedding the 2024 definition of extremism across Government to ensure a consistent understanding of extremism.
We are reviewing the existing engagement principles to ensure they are still valid and in line with current legislation and guidance and cover the full range of threats that exist. We are consulting with other government departments and key partners to achieve this.
Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure the security of fully remote English language testing in the immigration system.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Before any decision can be made to formally include remote testing as part of the Home Office English Language Testing service, the Home Office will ensure a full Cyber Security Assessment including a Threat Assessment is conducted to ensure compliance with Home Office Policy.
In addition, any delivery model must meet appropriate integrity requirements and principles including data security, cyber security, accessibility, fraud risk and prevention to ensure compliance with Home Office Policy and ensure that the service delivers the fundamental principles underpinning our Immigration policies and our visa journey. This compliance will be assessed throughout the tender process to ensure the strictest compliance with Home Office security parameters.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money has been recovered from each provider of asylum hotels through the excess profit clause in each contract in each of the last four years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Excess profits of £45.9m have been returned to the Department in relation to the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract’s profit share provisions.
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, whether her Department has paid for followers on social media platforms it uses.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not, and has not paid for followers on its social media platforms.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has held with the Metropolitan Police on the advisability of allowing the proposed Al Quds parade to take place in London on March 15, in the context of the current security situation in the Middle East.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, wrote to the Home Secretary on 9 March requesting her consent to an order under section 13 of the Public Order Act 1986 to prohibit processions and counter-processions in relation to Al Quds Day.
The Home Secretary approved the order, to prevent serious public disorder. The Government’s foremost duty is the protection of its citizens, and this includes ensuring the safety of participants at the protest and counter-protests, as well as the wider public.
A decision to prohibit protests under section 13 of the Public Order Act 1986 is exceptional. This power is used rarely and only where the legal threshold is met. The Metropolitan Police were clear that imposing conditions would not be sufficient to manage the risks in this case.
The decision reflects the unique circumstances this year, including the scale of the planned march, multiple counter-protests, and heightened tensions linked to events in the Middle East.
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 press release entitled New UK–Nigeria partnership to speed up removals, published on 19 March 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of that agreement on the time taken to remove individuals with no right to remain.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 18 March 2026, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed a UK-Nigeria Migration Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Nigerian Interior Minister, the Hon. Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
Under the terms of the MOU, the Home Office will be able to facilitate returns using a UK Letter travel document. This will ensure that we are able to swiftly conduct the return of those that no longer have a right to be in the UK. Home Office officials will work closely with the Nigerian authorities to monitor implementation.
MOUs are not legally binding but are routine mechanisms used to manage activity between the UK and foreign governments.
The Home Office publishes statistics on returns from the UK in the Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release.
Foreign national offender (FNO) returns from the UK to Nigeria are published in Table Ret_D04 of the Returns detailed datasets with the most recent figures covering the period up to the end of December 2025.
The Home Office does not publish statistics on visa overstayer returns for any nationality. In addition, Nigeria does not appear in the nationality breakdown for failed asylum seeker (asylum related) returns as only the highest 10 nationalities are published.
These publication limitations apply only to those specific return categories and do not affect the published data on foreign national offender returns to Nigeria.