Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent the homelessness to prison cycle.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The Government’s Rough Sleeping Strategy published in September 2022 and published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ending-rough-sleeping-for-good), sets out, in section 4.1, how we are delivering our aim that no one should leave prison homeless or to sleep rough.
Since publication of the strategy we have published further allocations for the Accommodation for ex-Offenders scheme up to March 2025, which are available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accommodation-for-ex-offenders-scheme-local-authority-funding-allocations-between-july-2021-and-march-2025
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to mobilise funding to support the education of refugees in low and middle income host countries.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As set out in the recent Development White Paper, the UK continues to support education for refugee children through our work in emergencies and protracted crises, with our support through Education Cannot Wait and the Global Partnership for Education. This includes support for the implementation of the UNHCR-UNICEF Blueprint for Joint Action for Refugee Children. Working with a number of partners, we will also be announcing further support for inclusive refugee education at the Global Refugee Forum.
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 Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have expanded the capacity of the Department of Work and Pensions to provide local support to refugees who, as a consequence of the backlog of applications being cleared, have recently been given asylum.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Work Coaches have access to information on a range of services and support available in their local area for vulnerable claimants, including refugees. We also have access to a range of translation services to assist, should a claimant need support to overcome any language barriers.
Work Coaches receive training to help them build supportive relationships with claimants, including refugees, encouraging them to openly discuss any barriers, concerns, or problems as they emerge.
Work Coaches will provide tailored employment support to meet their customer’s needs. They utilise a wide range of tools to ensure that we are providing intensive employment support to these customers. This includes the use of Flexible Support Fund, Sector based work academy programme, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Jobs Fairs, collaboration with local partners and Group Information Sessions.
Claimants can also give permission to share their UC account journal with support workers. The opportunity to combine face to face contact with on-line support has helped alleviate some of the communication barriers within legacy benefits which were traditionally more reliant on telephone and written forms of communications. Work Coaches can also use the on-line account to remind claimants of any information needed in order to ensure that their claim is processed smoothly.
More generally, we are increasing capacity in our Decision Making teams, during both this and the next quarter, to help meet demand for benefit decisions.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have expanded the capacity of the Department of Work and Pensions to provide local support to refugees who have been given asylum recently as a result of the backlog of applications being cleared.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Work Coaches have access to information on a range of services and support available in their local area for vulnerable claimants, including refugees. We also have access to a range of translation services to assist, should a claimant need support to overcome any language barriers.
Work Coaches receive training to help them build supportive relationships with claimants, including refugees, encouraging them to openly discuss any barriers, concerns, or problems as they emerge.
Work Coaches will provide tailored employment support to meet their customer’s needs. They utilise a wide range of tools to ensure that we are providing intensive employment support to these customers. This includes the use of Flexible Support Fund, Sector based work academy programme, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Jobs Fairs, collaboration with local partners and Group Information Sessions.
Claimants can also give permission to share their UC account journal with support workers. The opportunity to combine face to face contact with on-line support has helped alleviate some of the communication barriers within legacy benefits which were traditionally more reliant on telephone and written forms of communications. Work Coaches can also use the on-line account to remind claimants of any information needed in order to ensure that their claim is processed smoothly.
More generally, we are increasing capacity in our Decision Making teams, during both this and the next quarter, to help meet demand for benefit decisions.
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: