Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the 2.2 million EU citizens now granted pre-settled status will be able to switch to settled status in (1) 2021, and (2) each of the next five calendar years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
A person granted pre-settled status can apply for settled status as soon as they qualify for this. They will be eligible for settled status once they have completed five years’ continuous residence or where other criteria for eligibility for settled status without that length of continuous residence are met.
The Home Office cannot assess a person’s eligibility for settled status until they make an application to the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) people, and (2) children, are included in the 27,000 British Nationals (Overseas) applications referred to in their press release of 8 April, National welcome for Hong Kong arrivals.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The new Hong Kong BN(O) route was launched on 31 January 2021, with the new digital application launching on 23 February.
As of 19 March 2021, approximately 27,000 BN(O) status holders and their family members have applied for the route.
Further breakdown of the application numbers and updated figures will be published as part of the the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’, the next update is due for publication on 27 May 2021 and will be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of applications made under the EU Settlement Scheme; and of why this number is now nearly one million more than the upper estimate included in the report Impact Assessment for EU Settlement Scheme – Updated analysis, published in March 2019.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
The latest published information on EU Settlement Scheme applications and outcomes can be found in the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’ monthly publication, which is available at:
EU Settlement Scheme statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Impact Assessment for the EU Settlement Scheme (March 2019) is available at:
This discussed the assumptions, risks, uncertainties and exclusions surrounding its estimate of eligible citizens and made clear it should be considered as indicative and not as minimum and maximum estimates.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) arrests, (2) prosecutions, and (3) convictions, there were for offences committed under section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
| 20/21 | 19/20 | 18/19 | 17/18 | 16/17 |
Arrests | 129 | 16 | 42 | 57 | 209 |
Charges | 116 | 13 | 24 | 48 | 154 |
Convictions | 48 | 11 | 23 | 48 | 117 |
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of British National (Overseas) passport holders and their dependants who may apply to work in the UK; and how many of these would meet the English language requirements that apply to migrants from elsewhere.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
On 31 January, the Home Office launched the new Hong Kong British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) route. The route will enable BN(O) status holders and their eligible family members to come to the UK to live, work and study.
As set out in the published impact assessment, our central estimates of those who will take up this offer range between 123,000 and 153,700 BN(O) status holders and their dependants coming in the first year and between 258,000 and 322,400 over five years. Details of the impact assessment can be found at:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2020/70/pdfs/ukia_20200070_en.pdf
We have communicated the expectation throughout the development of the route; applicants should be self-sufficient and economically active. Part of the integration planning for the new BN(O) route includes access to support materials to help BN(O) status holders find work. There are no minimum skill levels or salary thresholds on this route as it comes with a general right to work in the UK.
There is no English language requirement when applying for the BN(O) route so this aspect is not assessed, although English is commonly used in Hong Kong.
The government looks forward to welcoming applications from those British National (Overseas) who wish to make our United Kingdom their home.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many asylum claims in (1) January, (2) February, and (3) to date in March, 2021, have been treated as inadmissible on the basis that the claimant was judged to have travelled through or have a connection to a safe third country; and which those countries were.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of asylum applications are published in Table Asy_D01 and data on the number and type of asylum initial decisions are published in table Asy_D02 of the Asylum and Resettlement datasets.
Figures on the number of asylum application decisions made in the first quarter of 2021 are due to be published on 27 May 2021. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’. We are working to bring inadmissibility decisions in line with current reporting and hope to publish that information in the same timeframe.
We are reviewing the cases of those who claimed asylum before 1 January and their suitability for decision-making under the new rules. If it is appropriate for any claimants to receive decisions under the new provisions, they will be informed of that, in line with the Home Office published policy guidance.
The Home Office current published guidance is clear that we will serve an inadmissibility decision only when an individual’s return is agreed by a third country. The Home Office continues to work closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development to secure agreements to enable returns to be made. Any case where return is not agreed within 6 months from the date of claim will be admitted to the asylum process and will have their asylum claim substantively considered in the UK.
Information on the Home Office inadmissibility rules can be found on gov.uk under ‘Inadmissibility: third country cases’.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many individuals have been removed from the UK in each of the last 10 years as a result of the expiry of their leave to remain.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office publishes data on the number of returns from the UK in each quarter in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly release’. The latest data are published in Ret_01 of the Returns summary tables. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to the year ending September 2020.
The Home Office seeks to return people who do not have any legal right to stay in the UK, which includes people who:
The published data relate to all returns, regardless of reason for return.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to identify EU citizens in the UK who overstay their visas.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
EU migrants whose visas expire will be identified and treated in the same way as any other overstayers.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 21 January (HL11926), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, how many non-visa nationals whose permission to be in the UK expired, and for whom there was no record of departure, there were in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We do not currently hold any existing assured data relating to the cohort of non-visa national visitors whose permission to be in the UK has expired and there is no record of departure.
To attempt to answer the question from data we hold would require significant technical, analytical and assurance work to establish the accuracy of any data for this cohort held within the immigration system.
However, the Home Office publishes statistics relating to departures by visa holders as part of its annual Exit Checks report. Fifth report on statistics relating to exit checks - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) The report includes the percentage of non-EEA visa holders whose leave expired with no initially identified departure in time, including both people for whom there was no record of departure and people with a confirmed late departure. It is important to note that individuals with no departure recorded were not necessarily non-compliant.
Asked by: Lord Green of Deddington (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many British National (Overseas) passport applications were received in each month of 2020.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
British passport applications are not recorded by nationality type when an application is received, and therefore the data requested is unavailable.
The table below provides the number of British National (Overseas) passports that were issued in each month of 2020:
Month | BNO Issued in 2020 |
January | 28,995 |
February | 7,889 |
March | 6,288 |
April | 363 |
May | 2,270 |
June | 7,719 |
July | 24,973 |
August | 33,249 |
September | 48,081 |
October | 60,907 |
November | 56,563 |
December | 39,687 |
*These figures are correct at the time of reporting and subject to change.