Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people living in Home Office supported asylum accommodation have been accused of a crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of people in asylum accommodation who have been accused of a crime. Allegations of criminal activity are matters for the police, who are responsible for recording, investigating, and progressing criminal reports.
Home Office accommodation providers and operational staff work closely with local police forces to share relevant safeguarding information and to manage risks within the asylum accommodation estate. Where incidents occur, established processes ensure that appropriate action is taken to protect both asylum seekers and staff, and additional support is deployed where necessary.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) identify and (b) detain Islamic extremists.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
This Government takes extremism seriously. We are committed to ensuring we have the required tools and powers to counter the activities of extremists. This includes challenging extremist narratives by taking a more muscular approach to identifying and watchlisting extremists, and ensuring dangerous overseas hate preachers and extremists are unable to enter the UK to spread their divisive rhetoric.
Islamist extremism continues to be one of the biggest threats we face and is at the heart of our approach to countering extremism and terrorism. We focus on the individuals, groups and environments, online and offline, which foster and enable hatred, and those who reject the fundamental values of our society and whose purpose is to divide and to terrify communities. These extremists must be challenged, and where their activities fall foul of our laws on hate speech, on public order, or on terrorism they will rightly be investigated and prosecuted.
The UK has one of the most robust counter-terrorism frameworks in the world which is deliberately widely drawn to capture the ever-diversifying nature of the terrorist threat that we face. This includes a wide range of terrorist offences and specialised powers for the police and Security Service to investigate and disrupt terrorist activity, support prosecution, and manage terrorist offenders, where activity meets appropriate thresholds. It is a matter for the operationally independent Police, Crown Prosecution Service and courts to decide if a crime has been committed.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the UK is taking to combat international drug trafficking networks.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Drugs have a devastating impact on the health of individuals and communities.
The Home Office and UK Law Enforcement, particularly Border Force and the National Crime Agency, delivers a significant amount of operational activity to detect and seize illicit drugs being trafficked to the UK and to secure our border. Our strategy focuses on working closely with law enforcement partners upstream to stop drug trafficking at source and across the supply chain, targeting the gangs responsible, and bringing them to justice.
In the year ending March 2025, Border Force seized over 150 tonnes of illegal drugs from overseas; the highest amount on record and a 40% increase on the amount seized in the year ending March 2024.
Serious criminals are constantly developing their approaches to traffic drugs into the UK in response to our efforts at the border and we recognise that we must continue to adapt our approach.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the number of asylum seekers who have voluntarily visited their country of origin while their asylum claim is being processed.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Requests to leave the UK whilst continuing to pursue an asylum claim will only be accepted in the most exceptional circumstances such as the serious illness or death of a close family member or access to medical treatment abroad as it is unavailable in the UK.
If the claimant does not seek permission to travel before leaving the UK, or the request is not responded to by the Home Office, before the claimant has left the UK, all circumstances will be taken into account before proceeding to withdrawal action.
Under paragraph 333C(b)(ii) of the Immigration Rules, an application may be treated as implicitly withdrawn if the applicant leaves the United Kingdom (without authorisation) at any time before the conclusion of their application for asylum.
In the Immigration System Statistics data tables, published quarterly, withdrawals are categorised into implicit (non- substantiated) and other withdrawals (including explicit). However, we do not report on withdrawals in greater detail than that, for example, according to whether someone has returned to their country of origin as it is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of illegal migration on risks to the public.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Border Security Command (BSC) whose work is imperative not only to stop criminals from entering the UK via small boats in the first place but to stop anyone from making these dangerous journeys. This is why the BSC is working with partners internationally to tackle and disrupt organised immigration crime gangs.
All individuals arriving in the UK via small boats undergo a comprehensive screening process. This is designed to gather key information about each person, including any indicators of criminality.
As part of this process, the Home Office collects biometric data—such as facial images and fingerprints—to verify identity. These biometrics are checked against Home Office systems and other law enforcement databases, including Interpol’s wanted list. This enables us to identify individuals, assess whether they pose a risk to public safety, and determine any breaches of immigration law. These checks are essential to maintaining a secure, fair, and effective immigration system.
In line with the Refugee Convention, refugee status will be denied to those who have committed serious crimes, pose a danger to the community, or present a threat to national security.
For further details on security checks during the asylum screening process, please refer to Gov.UK.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the scale of illegal migration to the UK.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes statistics on detected arrivals via illegal routes to the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on detected arrivals by illegal routes is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of September 2025.
The Government has taken significant steps to address illegal migration and its Plan for Change sets out our ambition to secure borders and control immigration. We are committed to tackling illegal migration and the criminal networks which facilitate it. Since July 2024, nearly 50,000 individuals without lawful status have been returned from the UK. Our agreement with France means that those arriving by small boats can be detained and returned to France.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase transparency in the way immigration applications are processed.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
All entry clearance, permission to stay and settlement applications are subject to customer service standards which we report on our website along with transparency data on performance. Where an individual is refused permission they are provided with a full refusal notice and in some categories have a right to an administrative review or full right of appeal.
Applicants are also able to view guidance which is published on GOV.UK (Visas and immigration operational guidance - GOV.UK), that caseworkers use when they consider making decisions on applications.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what vetting her Department undertakes into people who arrived in the UK illegally who subsequently apply for leave to remain.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office performs mandatory identity verification and security checks on all individuals applying to enter or remain in the UK. These checks are set out in comprehensive, internal guidance called the UK Visas and Immigration Operating Mandate (OM). To protect the integrity of the specific identity and security checking processes that are conducted under the OM, the information contained within it is not disclosed publicly.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made about the level of threat from far-left extremism.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, provides a comprehensive framework for tackling all forms of terrorism and is kept under constant review to ensure our approach remains fit for purpose in response to emerging risks and challenges.
As outlined in the publication of the most recent iteration of CONTEST, in July 2023, Left Wing, Anarchist and Single-Issue Terrorism (LASIT) currently represents a significantly smaller terrorist threat to the UK than Islamist terrorism or Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism (ERWT).
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on trends in the level of drug misuse crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The ONS publishes data from Crime Survey in England and Wales on the extent and trends of illicit drug use and it can be found here:
The Home Office publishes police recorded crime data for trafficking of drugs and possession of drugs and it can be found here: