Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how areas are chosen to provide accommodation to asylum seekers; and what consideration is given to fair distribution across the country when making these decisions.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The United Kingdom has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and other support whilst their application for asylum is being considered. Private accommodation is sourced through our Asylum Accommodation and Support Services contracts (AASC) providers. The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support. Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 24 November 2022.
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 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts
From 13 April 2022, all Local Authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales were obliged to participate in a new system of full dispersal accommodation. This will help the Home Office to move from using hotels to less expensive and more suitable dispersed accommodation. The Full Dispersal model allows the Home Office to procure dispersal properties within the private rental sector in all Local Authority areas across England, Scotland and Wales, rather than the minority of Local Authorities which currently participate. This approach will reduce pressures on those Local Authorities that already participate.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many asylum seekers are currently housed in private accommodation; and, for each month in 2021 and 2022, what was the cost of providing this accommodation.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The United Kingdom has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and other support whilst their application for asylum is being considered. Private accommodation is sourced through our Asylum Accommodation and Support Services contracts (AASC) providers. The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support. Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 24 November 2022.
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 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts
From 13 April 2022, all Local Authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales were obliged to participate in a new system of full dispersal accommodation. This will help the Home Office to move from using hotels to less expensive and more suitable dispersed accommodation. The Full Dispersal model allows the Home Office to procure dispersal properties within the private rental sector in all Local Authority areas across England, Scotland and Wales, rather than the minority of Local Authorities which currently participate. This approach will reduce pressures on those Local Authorities that already participate.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 8 November (HL3121), when they expect data to be available on (1) the number of staff supporting the Voluntary Returns Service, (2) the cost of the service, and (3) the number of complaints received by the service.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office does not publish the information sought at the level of granularity required.
The Home Office does routinely publish information on the total cost and breakdown of Asylum costs and productivity, and this can be found at table Asy_04 of the Immigration and Protection data.
These include the costs of managing asylum operations claims including costs associated with deciding a case, managing any related appeal, asylum operations support, potential detention and enforcement including escorting and voluntary returns. Also included are the costs of department staff and buildings and the proportionate costs of the Home Office building and managerial costs.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many refugees have been admitted under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme; and what assessment they have made of the year long delay in admitting refugees to the UK under Pathway 2 of that scheme.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The recent update to the published 'Afghan Resettlement: Operational Data', shows that, at 4th November 2022:
We are pleased to have welcomed the first families under ACRS Pathway 2. On 24th November the latest Immigration Statistics publication included data on Pathway 2 arrivals and this can be found at: Immigration statistics data tables, year ending September 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
We are working at pace with Local Authorities and other partners to make sure those we resettle are fully supported in accessing the accommodation, health, education, and employment needed to fully integrate into life in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of individuals who have died crossing the English Channel to get to the UK in the back of lorries and other vehicles in each month since January 2010.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
These dangerous concealments are facilitated by vile people smugglers, who place profits above the lives of vulnerable people. The Government is determined to prevent further loss of life by breaking the business model.
The Home Office has invested significant amounts since 2014 to secure feeder ports, including increasing the use of body detection dogs and strengthening the vehicle screening regimes with the latest technology. The department is currently in the process of significantly strengthening the clandestine entrant civil penalty regime in order further drive improvements in vehicle security.
Unfortunately, there have been fatalities, including the Purfleet incident in 2019 when 39 Vietnamese nationals sadly lost their lives, and all such incidents are a reminder that attempts to clandestinely cross the border are inherently dangerous.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why individuals who enter under the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme are not currently included in the quarterly Immigration Statistics publications; and what plans, if any, they have to include them.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the noble Lord’s Parliamentary Question of 5 December is attached.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
The Lord Rosser
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
12 December 2022
Dear Lord Rosser,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking why individuals who enter under the Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme are not currently included in the quarterly Immigration Statistics publications; and what plans, if any, they have to include them (HL4035).
In your question, you refer to “quarterly immigration statistics publications”. If referring to the Home Office data Immigration statistics, year ending September 2022[1] , this was published on 24 November 2022, and contains a webpage entitled ‘How many people do we grant protection to?’ [2] . This page provides details of the inclusion of people resettled from Afghanistan in those statistics (see section 1.1 Resettlement).
The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Migration Statistics Quarterly Report (MSQR), has not been published since August 2020[3] and therefore will not contain information on the Afghan citizen resettlement scheme, which opened on 6 January 2022[4] . In our most recent Long-term international migration bulletin (published on 24 November 2022), Section 4, Migration Events[5] details that around 21,000 Afghans arrived in the UK and are included in the ONS’ total longterm international migration estimates.
This figure is based on published Home Office operational data, which estimates around 21,000 arrivals are associated with Operation PITTING (the evacuation of people from Afghanistan in August 2021), and are included in our total immigration estimates. This figure will include some British nationals. Similar to those arriving on the Ukrainian Visa Schemes, in the absence of reliable evidence to suggest otherwise, this subpopulation are included under the assumption that they are arriving in the UK for 12 months or more. This means that these estimates will be an upper bound for these populations and may be revised down once we have more information on their actual length of stay. Please see the Measuring the data section[6] for more detail on our methods.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-september-2022
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-september-2022/how-many-people-do-we-grant-protection-to
[3] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/migrationstatisticsquarterlyreport/previousReleases
[4] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/afghan-citizens-resettlement-scheme
[5] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingjune2022#migration-events
[6] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/yearendingjune2022#measuring-the-data
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how many individuals have died attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats in each month since January 2018.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office is aware of a total of 42 persons known to have died while attempting Channel crossings in small boats since January 2018:
August 2019 – 2 deaths reported
October 2019 – 2 death reported
August 2020 – 1 death reported
October 2020 – 5 deaths reported
February 2021 – 1 death reported
August 2021 – 1 death reported
November 2021 – 29 deaths reported
January 2022 – 1 death reported
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the stories published on the website of the Voluntary Returns Service on 21 October are representative of the experiences most users have with the service.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Data on the number of voluntary returns is published quarterly at table Ret_01 of the returns summary dataset, which is attached. Data on voluntary returns are subject to upward revision, so comparisons over time should be made with caution. In some cases, individuals who have been told to leave the UK will not notify the Home Office of their departure from the UK. In such cases, it can take some time for the Home Office to become aware of such a departure and update the system. As a result, data for more recent periods will initially undercount the total number of returns. ‘Other verified returns’ are particularly affected by this.
Information requested which is not contained within this published data is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, for each year since 2010, (1) how many staff have supported the Voluntary Returns Service, (2) how much the service has cost, and (3) how many complaints about the service were received.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Data on the number of voluntary returns is published quarterly at table Ret_01 of the returns summary dataset, which is attached. Data on voluntary returns are subject to upward revision, so comparisons over time should be made with caution. In some cases, individuals who have been told to leave the UK will not notify the Home Office of their departure from the UK. In such cases, it can take some time for the Home Office to become aware of such a departure and update the system. As a result, data for more recent periods will initially undercount the total number of returns. ‘Other verified returns’ are particularly affected by this.
Information requested which is not contained within this published data is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many individuals have sought to return to their country of nationality via the Voluntary Returns Service in each year since 2010; and what was the average period between contacting the service and the individual being returned to their country of nationality in each of those years.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Data on the number of voluntary returns is published quarterly at table Ret_01 of the returns summary dataset, which is attached. Data on voluntary returns are subject to upward revision, so comparisons over time should be made with caution. In some cases, individuals who have been told to leave the UK will not notify the Home Office of their departure from the UK. In such cases, it can take some time for the Home Office to become aware of such a departure and update the system. As a result, data for more recent periods will initially undercount the total number of returns. ‘Other verified returns’ are particularly affected by this.
Information requested which is not contained within this published data is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.