Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage a full ceasefire in Gaza.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No-one wants to see this conflict go on a moment longer than necessary, and an immediate pause is now necessary to get aid in and hostages out. To achieve that, a number of things would need to happen: Hamas agreeing to the release of all hostages, and no longer being in charge of Gaza; the threat from Hamas terror and rocket attacks ending; and an agreement for the Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza in order to provide governance and services and, increasingly, security.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ease the escalation of tensions in the Middle East.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK continues to seek the de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East. We are employing the full range of our diplomatic and security efforts, working with allies and international partners to counter groups seeking to undermine the region's peace, stability, and prosperity. It is in all our interests to work together to avoid regional escalation.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy to stop all dangerous channel crossings.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Illegal Migration Act, which this Government has enacted, is an important part of our response to illegal migration. The Act marks a vital step forward to stopping dangerous, unnecessary, and illegal journeys to the UK by removing the incentives for people to take these routes in the first place.
The UK and French governments are committed to working together to stop small boat crossings of the English Channel, and in March 2023 the Prime Minister and President Macron agreed an ambitious new, multi-year, deal that will see us intensify our cooperation with the French government to prevent small boat crossings, with the aim of improving the interception rate and drastically reducing the number of crossings year-on-year. This new agreement is seeing more French personnel being deployed, supported by cutting-edge surveillance technologies and equipment; a new Zonal Coordination Centre has been established, responsible for the coordination and deployment of all relevant French law enforcement, supported by the UK and including permanently embedded British officers, and more work being done to disrupt organised crime gangs through improved intelligence sharing.
In 2023, our cooperation with France prevented over 26,000 individual crossings by small boat to the UK. Since the Joint Intelligence Cell was set up in July 2020, we have dismantled 82 organised criminal gangs responsible for people smuggling of small boats migrants.
We have developed a comprehensive illegal migration strategy to stop the boats and we are focused on delivering it; this has already seen a reduction in small boat crossings by a third in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (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 encourage local authorities to increase the amount of land made available for food allotments in England.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government recognises how important allotments and other open spaces are for local people and have introduced a range of new powers and opportunities for local planning authorities to promote healthy and safe communities, including allotment provision and access to healthier food.
Our Green Infrastructure Framework clearly sets out that opportunities to provide new allotments and community orchards should be considered at the earliest stages of a development proposal. Furthermore, our Community Right to Bid policy, gave communities the right to nominate a local allotment site to be listed as an asset of community value.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government who owns the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland Harbour; and how much the Government are paying for usage of the barge for accommodation of asylum seekers.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Bibby Stockholm is owned by the Bibby Line Group.
Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential. Therefore, the Home Office does not publish this information. However, total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at:
Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what funding has been provided to French authorities in total to combat illegal crossings of the English Channel.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK and France maintain a longstanding relationship on tackling illegal migration at the shared border.
Since signing of the Sandhurst Treaty in 2018 the UK has provided almost €500 million in funding to support our joint work with France to tackle small boats crossings. Please see a detailed breakdown of this funding below.
YEAR | INVESTMENT |
2014/15 | £14.7m |
2015/16 | £46m |
2016/17 | £17m |
2017/18 | £36m |
2018/19 | €50m |
2019/20 | €3.6m |
€2.5m | |
2020/21 | €31.4m |
2021/22 | €62.7m |
2022/23 | €72.2m |
2023/24 | €141m |
2024/25 * | €191m |
2025/26 * | €209m |
UK-France cooperation to tackle small boats resulted in over 26,000 small boats crossings prevented in 2023, with overall small boats arrivals down by over a third compared to 2022.
*committed funding as part of 2023 UK-France Summit multi-year deal.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence there is that the penalties imposed on illegal migrants deter future illegal crossings of the English Channel.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Through legislation, such as the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the Illegal Migration Act 2023, we have introduced a range of measures which aim to deter those who seek to enter the UK illegally.
We set out the evidence covering this in the published Impact Assessment for the Illegal Migration Act: (Impact Assessment (publishing.service.gov.uk)).
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of organised criminal gangs attempting to enable migrants to cross the English Channel illegally have been arrested.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is committed to tackling organised immigration crime. Methods of irregular entry to the UK can be unsafe, dangerous and leave migrants open to exploitation by organised crime groups.
Since the start of the year (01 January 2023), Immigration Enforcement have arrested over 230 persons for people smuggling into the UK.
Since January 2023, the Home Office have undertaken over 200 OCG disruption activities, including 21 relating to small boat crossings.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the mental health needs of the residents on the Bibby Stockholm.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We will assess individuals' suitability to reside at Portland and will only accommodate single adult males who are considered suitable to reside there.
Each person's suitability will be assessed at regular intervals and if they are no longer suitable for any reason, they will be moved to alternative accommodation.
Accommodation providers ensure that guidance and training provided to staff regarding the identification and management of vulnerable asylum seekers with specific needs, or at risk asylum seekers, is kept up to date and aligns with best practice.
All accommodated on the vessel have 24/7 access to the Migrant Help independent helpline for any concerns that they wish to raise. In conjunction with this, they will have free access to laptops and mobile phones to maintain contact with legal advisors, friends, and family.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, in developing their policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, they made an assessment of the unemployment rate in that country, and if so, what it is.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our analysis of the country situation drew on a wide range of evidence gathered through both desk-based research and country visits. We collected information on economic indicators including the opportunities and support available to refugees seeking employment, together with information on Rwanda’s health system, including its accessibility to refugees.
The information was carefully selected in accordance with internationally established country-of-origin information research methods and includes content from a variety of reliable sources such as media outlets, governmental sources and local, national and international organisations.
I cannot comment on other international relations with Rwanda.