Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether refugee support organisations, in addition to Migrant Help, currently operate within Napier Barracks.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Migrant Help act as a main point of contact for all Non-Government Organisation (NGO) activity and outreach work in the wider community, and a number of organisations are currently engaged with asylum seekers accommodated at Napier Barracks.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Prime Minister on 13 December 2022 when he stated that "we expect to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year" (HC Deb col 887), what progress they have made in reaching that target.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We remain on track to clear the legacy backlog by the end of 2023. The asylum backlog of legacy cases fell by over 35,000 cases between the end of November 2022 and the end of August 2023 when, according to provisional data, it stood at 55,477 outstanding claims.
23,702 asylum claims were decided in the year ending June 2023, an increase of 61% on the previous year, in part due to an increase in the number of asylum decision-makers employed by the Home Office.
We met our commitment to increase the number of asylum decision-makers to 2,500, and at the end of August 2023, provisional data shows there were 2,510 in post.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 26 September (HL10146), whether additional resources have been provided to Migrant Help to support refugees who, as a consequence of the backlog of applications being cleared, have recently been given asylum.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office continues to work with Migrant Help to ensure that they can meet their contractual requirements. Migrant Help have increased their headcount to respond to the significant increase in demand for their services.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the total number of people already in the UK likely to be affected by the increase in (1) visa fees, and (2) the Immigration Health Surcharge, scheduled for 4 October; and whether they have undertaken an equalities impact assessment.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office has undertaken Equality Impact Assessments (EIA) for visa fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) increases. The visa fee EIA was published on 19 September on gov.uk, the IHS EIA is due to be published shortly.
The link to the EIA can be found at the below link.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-and-nationality-fees-equality-impact-assessment
Regulatory Impact Assessments produced to accompany the legislation to increase the visa fee and IHS respectively analyse the potential impact on migration, broken down by visa product and delineated on applications made in and out of country.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made provision to support migrants already in the UK who are unable to afford the forthcoming increase in visa fees and the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Where a person applying on a family and human rights immigration route is unable to afford the visa fee and/or the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), they are able to submit a Fee Waiver application to request that the Fee and/or IHS is waived. Where this is backed by clear and compelling evidence provided by the individual, the fees may be waived if the applicant cannot afford them.
Exemptions from visa fees and the IHS are also in place for certain vulnerable cohorts, including asylum seekers, looked after children and Victims of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the official statistics published by the Home Office Irregular migration to the UK, year ending June 2023, published on 24 August, which found that "small boat arrivals account for less than half (46 per cent) of the total number of people claiming asylum in the UK in the year ending June 2023", by what means the other 54 per cent of people seeking asylum arrived in the UK.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes data on small boat arrivals in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ release. Data on asylum applications from small boat arrivals on these applications can be found in table Irr_D02 of the ‘irregular migration detailed datasets’.
Other entry routes to the UK may include:
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on (1) refugees, and (2) local authorities, of starting the move-on period for refugees granted asylum at the point they receive notice of their asylum decision instead of when they receive their Biometric Residence Permit.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
An individual remains eligible for asylum support for a prescribed period from the day they are notified of the decision on their asylum claim. Where someone is given notice that their asylum claim has been granted, their appeal has been allowed or their asylum claim has been refused but they have been given leave to enter or remain, the prescribed period in legislation is 28 days. Individuals should make plans to move on from asylum support as quickly as possible. Migrant Help are available to provide ‘Move On’ support, which includes advice on accessing jobs, housing and benefits.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average time taken for a person to receive their biometric residence permit after being granted refugee status.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have arrived in small boats across the English Channel since 7 March; and how many people crossed during each month from March 2022 to March 2023.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Statistics releases about irregular migration, including arrivals in small boats, are published regularly.
The latest statistics, to the end of March 2023, may be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-march-2023.
The next quarter of statistics is due to be published on 24 August 2023. The Home Office needs to ensure that information intended for publication meets the standards and requirements set for departmental publications. It would not be in the public interest for the Home Office to release this information prior to meeting such standards.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many referrals were made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to (1) the UK Resettlement Scheme, (2) Community Sponsorship, (3) the Mandate Resettlement Scheme, and (4) the Family Reunion Scheme, in each of the past three years; and how many referrals were not accepted in each of those schemes.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Between 2015 and March 2023, just over half a million people were offered safe and legal routes into the UK. This includes those from Hong Kong, Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, as well as family members of refugees, alongside our global resettlement schemes. The UK continues to welcome refugees and people in need through existing resettlement schemes and is one of the largest recipients of UNHCR referred refugees globally, second only to Sweden in Europe since 2015.
Under these schemes, the UNHCR will refer refugees for resettlement after undertaking an assessment of people’s needs and vulnerabilities. The UK does not seek to influence which cases are referred by the UNHCR under these global schemes.
Family Reunion is not referral based. It is an application based route.