Child Poverty and Homelessness: Asylum and Settlement Policies

Baroness Nargund Excerpts

Tuesday 14th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

No, it is not. We have had a consultation and we have 200,000 responses. We can look at those: AI is much used in the Home Office now to analyse what is happening. The key point is that the Government are trying to take action: we are trying to reduce the asylum backlog, reduce hotel use, stop small boat crossings and take action on all these important issues. There are certainly some areas of assessment and, going back to my noble friend’s original Question, we need to look at the impacts on child poverty and on families. But we need to take action to ensure that we regulate asylum and refugee status while we meet our international obligations and ensure that we are a civilised society, as we are now and will be in the future.

[Baroness Nargund (Lab)]

My Lords, the latest British Red Cross health equity report found that 73% of refugees and asylum seekers experience multiple layers of disadvantage compared to 20% of people supported by health and care systems. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of the proposed changes on the health and well-being of children in asylum-seeking families?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

My noble friend points to an extremely important issue. We will undertake a full economic and equality impact assessment of the proposals. We are using the responses from the consultation—going back to the noble Lord’s point—to look at what issues have been raised. We want to ensure that children in particular remain and have that support. Deprivation is a constant factor for unaccompanied children in particular; it is, in many ways, why people have tried to come to the United Kingdom. But I know that my noble friend also recognises that we need a regulated, efficient system that deals with people quickly, sorts out asylum claims, reduces the backlog, closes the costly hotels, stops the boats crossing the channel and, in doing so, allows for free and fair routes to be applied for so that those who are successful can join the economic community in this United Kingdom and earn a living.