Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the pilot announced in the Financial Inclusion Strategy, which aims to increase uptake of contents insurance among social renters in England, will include residents on socially rented Gypsy and Traveller sites.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Opportunities for social landlords to participate in the contents insurance pilot will open later this year.
This is part of the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy which encompasses an ambitious package of measures to help people access the products they need and support household financial resilience. The Strategy recognises the important role that insurance products play in giving households the ability to weather financial shocks and identifies contents insurance as a product area with low take-up among those who may stand to benefit from it the most.
The Government’s key financial inclusion delivery partner, Fair4All Finance, is working with the insurance and social housing sectors to explore different methods of increasing contents insurance uptake for social renters. This will consider approaches to reduce friction in delivery methods, raise awareness, and increase uptake and choice.
Where a consumer has found it difficult to find cover, a broker can support them to identify and access a product which meets their needs.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Chapman of Darlington on 26 May (HL111), when they last made representations to the government of Israel about the ill-treatment, including sexual assault, of Palestinian children in Israeli detention.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
Reports of ill-treatment of Palestinian children in detention, including sexual assault, are deeply concerning. FCDO ministers and officials raise concerns about human rights with our Israeli counterparts on a regular basis, including in relation to the detention of children. We are clear that the arrest and detention of children must follow due process and be in line with international juvenile justice standards.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many and what proportion of people currently placed in the Support Group and receiving only New Style Employment and Support Allowance are also undertaking paid work within the permitted work limits; and what is their gender breakdown.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Reliable data is not held centrally so the information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the causes of delays in the processing of applications for both leave to remain and indefinite leave to remain under the Turkish European Communities Association Agreement (ECAA); and what factors account for (1) the level of refusals relative to grants, (2) the size of the ECAA Work-in-Progress, and (3) the differences in processing performance between the ECAA and British National (Overseas) routes.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is a 6-month service standard for the processing of applications to the ECAA route and customers are informed if their application will not be concluded in that timeframe.
To reduce the current Work-in-progress, additional resource has been assigned to this area and the Home Office expect to see increasing output and quicker turnarounds throughout the second half of 2026, as that takes effect.
Each ECAA application is considered on its individual facts prior to a final decision, on whether to refuse or grant leave, being served.
There has been a higher than forecast intake on the ECAA route over the last 12 months, and a high proportion of complex cases with large amounts of supporting evidence which must be reviewed as part of the decision-making process. This has impacted processing times and volumes of decisions which has resulted in a higher-than-expected Work-in-progress.
The processing performance of the ECAA and British National (Overseas) casework are individual to each route. There is no correlation between completion rates for British National (Overseas) Leave to Remain applications and ECAA Leave to Remain applications. Each immigration route has its own specific eligibility criteria that must be considered prior to a final decision being served.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what communication they have had with applicants for both leave to remain and indefinite leave to remain under the Turkish European Communities Association Agreement (ECAA) who are currently waiting longer than nine months; and what is the predicted timescale to clear the ECAA backlog.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is a 6-month service standard for the processing of applications to the ECAA route and customers are informed if their application will not be concluded in that timeframe.
To reduce the current Work-in-progress, additional resource has been assigned to this area and the Home Office expect to see increasing output and quicker turnarounds throughout the second half of 2026, as that takes effect.
Each ECAA application is considered on its individual facts prior to a final decision, on whether to refuse or grant leave, being served.
There has been a higher than forecast intake on the ECAA route over the last 12 months, and a high proportion of complex cases with large amounts of supporting evidence which must be reviewed as part of the decision-making process. This has impacted processing times and volumes of decisions which has resulted in a higher-than-expected Work-in-progress.
The processing performance of the ECAA and British National (Overseas) casework are individual to each route. There is no correlation between completion rates for British National (Overseas) Leave to Remain applications and ECAA Leave to Remain applications. Each immigration route has its own specific eligibility criteria that must be considered prior to a final decision being served.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the service standard completion rate for BN(O) Leave to Remain applications between Q3 2024 and Q4 2025 remained consistently above 97 per cent while the equivalent rate for ECAA Leave to Remain applications fell from 5.7 per cent to 2.5 per cent over the same period.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office service standard completion rates are individual to each casework route. There is no correlation between completion rates for British National (Overseas) Leave to Remain applications and ECAA Leave to Remain applications.
Each application is considered on its individual facts, with each immigration route having its own specific eligibility criteria that must be considered prior to a final decision being served.
The Home Office allocates resources for case working of immigration applications in line with the forecasted demand.
The increase in applications for indefinite leave to remain under the British National (Overseas) route reflects the timing of eligibility following the route’s introduction on 31 January 2021. Those on the route generally qualify for indefinite leave after five years’ residence. Casework resource was allocated to this route in line with the forecasted increase in applications throughout 2026.
There has been a higher than forecast intake on the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) route over the last 12 months, and a high proportion of complex cases with large amounts of evidence which must be reviewed as part of the decision-making process. This has impacted processing times and volumes of decisions. Additional decision-making resource has now been assigned to the ECAA route.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what were the circumstances that led to 15,636 applications for indefinite leave to remain under the British National (Overseas) route being received in Q1 2026; and whether new resources were recruited in anticipation of that volume or whether the additional staffing resources deployed were drawn from caseworkers assigned to applications under the Turkish European Communities Association Agreement.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office service standard completion rates are individual to each casework route. There is no correlation between completion rates for British National (Overseas) Leave to Remain applications and ECAA Leave to Remain applications.
Each application is considered on its individual facts, with each immigration route having its own specific eligibility criteria that must be considered prior to a final decision being served.
The Home Office allocates resources for case working of immigration applications in line with the forecasted demand.
The increase in applications for indefinite leave to remain under the British National (Overseas) route reflects the timing of eligibility following the route’s introduction on 31 January 2021. Those on the route generally qualify for indefinite leave after five years’ residence. Casework resource was allocated to this route in line with the forecasted increase in applications throughout 2026.
There has been a higher than forecast intake on the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) route over the last 12 months, and a high proportion of complex cases with large amounts of evidence which must be reviewed as part of the decision-making process. This has impacted processing times and volumes of decisions. Additional decision-making resource has now been assigned to the ECAA route.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 13 April (HL16099), whether the Settlement - Detailed Datasets published on 21 May contained a discrete category of leave group entitled ECAA; and what data they hold on (1) the number of applications for indefinite leave to remain made under Immigration Rules Appendix ECAA which are currently awaiting decision, and (2) the number of applications which have been awaiting decision for more than six months.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not publish information detailing the number of applications for Indefinite Leave to Remain under the ECAA route which are currently awaiting a decision, or which have been awaiting a decision for more than six months.
The published data on grants of Settlement under the Work Permit holder category largely relates to persons granted leave under the ECAA route. Details can be found in the UK Visa & Immigration Transparency Data.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relationship between the decline in grants of indefinite leave to remain under the European Community Association Agreement category between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 and the simultaneous increase in grants under the BN(O) Hong Kong category in the same period.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is no correlation between outcomes of applications on different routes for indefinite leave to remain. The outcome of each application considered by the Home Office is decided on its individual facts. The Home Office allocates resources for case working of immigration applications in line with the forecasted demand.
There has been a higher than forecast intake on the European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) route over the last 12 months, and a high proportion of complex cases with large amounts of evidence which must be reviewed as part of the decision-making process. This has impacted processing times and volumes of decisions. Additional decision-making resource has now been assigned to the ECAA routes.
The increase in grants of indefinite leave to remain under the British National (Overseas) route reflects the timing of eligibility following the route’s introduction on 31 January 2021. Those on the route generally qualify for indefinite leave after five years’ residence.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the briefing by the Refugee and Migrant Children's Consortium Decisions in Unaccompanied Children's Asylum Claims and in particular (1) why there has been a significant reduction in protection grant rates in children's cases, and (2) whether they will disaggregate the appeal statistics for unaccompanied children by nationality and age.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is aware of the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium (RMCC) briefing.
Published Immigration Statistics indicate that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) received 2,328 grants of protection or other leave at initial decision in the Year-Ending (YE) March 2026. The grant rate of UASC claims was 58% in the YE March 2026, higher than for non-UASC claims (39%). The UASC grant rate at initial decision has fallen in each year since 2021 and so a lower grant rate in 2026 is consistent with the overall trend. This is also consistent with the general trend of a fall in the initial grant rate across all claims.
All asylum claims are considered on their individual merits in line with the relevant legislation and published policy including ‘Processing Children’s Claims’ guidance and country information. Decisions are made by caseworkers specifically trained to handle claims from children, who are instructed to take factors including age and maturity into account when assessing credibility and risk on return.
The grant rate can vary for a number of reasons, including the mix of nationalities claiming asylum, and the protection needs of those who claim asylum in the UK. It is also affected by operational resourcing and policy decisions, such as changes to the types of cases prioritised for decisions. The Home Office guidance on caseworking prioritisation is published on GOV.UK.
Regarding the statistics available on unaccompanied children, a breakdown on the number of cases awaiting an appeal outcome and awaiting removal is not currently available beyond June 2024 due to work on the transition to a new caseworking system, though work is ongoing to reinstate the data and figures. Once reporting resumes, future publications should be able to provide disaggregated figures.
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.