Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied children have been held at (1) HMP Elmley, Kent, and (2) other adult prisons over the last year, including those determined to be children after local authority age assessments.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Children's Society's The Good Childhood Report 2023, published on 20 September, and what plans they have to implement its recommendations to promote the wellbeing of children.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is grateful for the Good Childhood Report and has noted its findings. The Children’s Commissioner’s Family Review covers similar issues and the Government’s response to this will be published imminently.
The recommendation to create a cabinet level minister for children was addressed in the Government’s response to the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. We accept the importance of placing the best interests of the child front and centre in policy and decision making at the highest level of government. This role is already fulfilled through the work of the Secretary of State for Education.
We are implementing the proposals of the Government’s Transforming children and young people’s mental health Green Paper which includes establishing mental health support teams in schools and providing training to Senior Mental Health leads in schools.
The Department for Education publishes an annual State of the Nation report into Children’s wellbeing. The report brings together a range of published information from government, academic, voluntary, and private sector organisations to provide a clear narrative for all those interested in the wellbeing of children and young people in England. It provides a shared evidence base for everyone – in government, services, schools and colleges, parents and families, communities, and employers – to reflect upon and deliver better wellbeing outcomes for all children and young people.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance or information they have issued to local authorities following the change to the move-on period for newly recognised refugees.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
An individual remains eligible for asylum support for a prescribed period from the day they are notified of the decision on their asylum claim. Where someone is given notice that their asylum claim has been granted, their appeal has been allowed or their asylum claim has been refused but they have been given leave to enter or remain, the prescribed period in legislation is 28 days. There has been no change to the prescribed period.
Individuals should make plans to move on from asylum support as quickly as possible. We offer support through Migrant Help or their partner organisation in doing this. This includes providing advice on accessing the labour market, on applying for Universal Credit and signposting to local authorities for assistance with housing. Newly recognised refugees are entitled to housing assistance from their local authority and are treated as a priority need if they have children or are considered vulnerable. Individuals do not need to wait for their BRP to make a claim for benefits and are encouraged to do so as early as possible if they require them.
We are ensuring our cross government partners, such as the (DWP) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) are sighted on data to enable them to consider the impacts of increased decision making and effectively plan. We are also working with DLUHC to ensure the right asylum decision data is being shared with local authorities to enable effective planning and to lessen the impact on existing homelessness and rough sleeping pressures. Our accommodation providers are directly working with local authorities to notify them when an individual is due to have their asylum support ended.
In March 2023 we shared data with local and central government that provided a national overview of the initial SAP clearance exercise down to Local Authority level. In August 2023 we shared a further heatmap that included an updated snapshot of all SAP cases, as well as those within the legacy cohort, providing a fuller picture of cases that could be made in each region, down to Local Authority level.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the High Court ruling that the use of hotels to house unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is unlawful, what steps they will take to end the use of hotels for this purpose.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Hotel accommodation is a temporary means to accommodate the increased number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) arriving in the UK and is only ever a contingency option, not a long-term solution. The high number of UASC arrivals, particularly because of small boat crossings, has placed unprecedented pressure on the National Transfer Scheme (NTS). Out of necessity, the Home Office have accommodated UASC on an emergency and temporary basis in hotels while placements with local authorities have been vigorously pursued.
The High Court recently ruled that the routine and systematic use of hotels to accommodate UASC is unlawful, and we are working at pace with Kent County Council, other government departments and local authorities across the UK to ensure suitable local authority placements are provided for UASC urgently and sustainably.
The High Court has upheld that local authorities have a statutory duty to care for all children including UASC. The Home Office have always maintained that the best place for UASC to be accommodated is within a local authority.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of COVID-19 on the number of volunteers in the charity sector, and what steps they are taking to support charities to recruit a sufficient number of volunteers.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
His Majesty’s Government recognises how vital volunteering is for society, reaping benefits for those who volunteer as well as the organisations they assist. The Government aims to remove barriers which prevent people from getting involved.
The Government’s Community Life Survey shows that approximately 7 million people in England (16%) took part in volunteering with groups and organisations at least once a month in 2021/22. This is in line with rates recorded in 2020/21 (17%) and lower than before the pandemic.
HM Government funded the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) to carry out the ‘Time Well Spent’ survey on volunteer experiences, which was published in June 2023. We are also working closely with the Vision for Volunteering, and funding it this financial year. This is a strategic initiative from the voluntary sector to lead the ongoing support and development of volunteering in England with the aim of changing the volunteering landscape for the better by 2032.
My Department has also funded several other initiatives to support volunteering. The Volunteering Futures Fund supports organisations to develop more inclusive volunteering opportunities. The Know Your Neighbourhood fund aims to widen participation in volunteering and to tackle loneliness. We also provided funding for the Big Help Out the day after the Coronation of His Majesty The King, on 8 May 2023, which encouraged people to help out in their communities and to volunteer with charities in their local area.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to report on the circumstances regarding unaccompanied children who have gone missing from hotels, including (1) lessons learned, and (2) steps taken, to prevent recurrence; and when any such report will be published.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The high number of UASC arrivals placed unprecedented pressure on the National Transfer Scheme. Out of necessity the Home Office accommodated UASC on an emergency and temporary basis in hotels while placements with local authorities have been vigorously pursued. We are working at pace with Kent County Council, other government departments and local authorities across the UK to ensure suitable local authority placements are provided for unaccompanied children urgently and sustainably.
Those in hotels are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further support is provided on site by teams of social workers and nurses. Staff receive a number of briefings and guidance on how to safeguard children. All children receive a welfare interview, which includes a series of questions specifically designed to understand whether there are any potential indicators of trafficking or particular safeguarding issues. All contingency sites have security staff on site 24/7 and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.
When any young person goes missing - UASC or British citizen - the 'missing after reasonable steps" protocol is followed and led by our directly engaged social workers. The process is to follow this protocol developed by the police and work in conjunction with the LA (Local Authorities) children's services to invoke a missing child multi agency strategy meeting chaired by children's services.
The statutory guidance owned by the Department for Education requires local authorities to share information regarding all missing children locally in a multi-agency forum, therefore when a child goes missing from a hotel, the relevant local authority will convene a strategy meeting regarding them.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish statistics on the number of asylum applications that are reinstated after initially being withdrawn.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Statistics on the number of asylum applications that are reinstated after being withdrawn specifically are not planned for publication, though they are a subset of data that is already published.
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics’ release on GOV.uk. Data on final outcomes of asylum applications is published in table Asy_D04 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. The latest data relate to 2021. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, as well as quality and availability of data.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what funding is available to local authorities to support their responsibility for finding suitable and specialist placements for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Local authorities receive through funding from the Local Government Finance Settlement and finance arrangements which apply to the Devolved Administrations. The Home Office provides additional funding contributions to the costs incurred by local government in looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) and former UASC care leavers. UASC and leaving care funding instructions can be found using the link below:
Unaccompanied asylum seeking children and leaving care: funding instructions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
An incentivised funding programme of £6,000 is also offered to local authorities which includes transfers of unaccompanied children from interim UASC hotels and Kent County Council. Transfers will need to take place within 5 working days to qualify for the funding.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend the move-on period for newly recognised refugees to at least 56 days, in line with the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and the applications for Universal Credit; and whether they will publish a strategy to accompany any such plans.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
An individual remains eligible for asylum support for a prescribed period from the day they are notified of the decision on their asylum claim. Where someone is given notice that their asylum claim has been granted, their appeal has been allowed or their asylum claim has been refused but they have been given leave to enter or remain, the prescribed period in legislation is 28 days. There has been no change to the prescribed period.
Individuals should make plans to move on from asylum support as quickly as possible. We offer support through Migrant Help or their partner organisation in doing this. This includes providing advice on accessing the labour market, on applying for Universal Credit and signposting to local authorities for assistance with housing.
We are engaging the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on ensuring individuals can move on from asylum support as smoothly as possible.
Figures on the number of discontinuations are not available in a readily reportable format.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Durham (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have been affected by the change to the move-on period for newly recognised refugees, which gives seven days' notice for them to leave their asylum support accommodation.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
An individual remains eligible for asylum support for a prescribed period from the day they are notified of the decision on their asylum claim. Where someone is given notice that their asylum claim has been granted, their appeal has been allowed or their asylum claim has been refused but they have been given leave to enter or remain, the prescribed period in legislation is 28 days. There has been no change to the prescribed period.
Individuals should make plans to move on from asylum support as quickly as possible. We offer support through Migrant Help or their partner organisation in doing this. This includes providing advice on accessing the labour market, on applying for Universal Credit and signposting to local authorities for assistance with housing.
We are engaging the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on ensuring individuals can move on from asylum support as smoothly as possible.
Figures on the number of discontinuations are not available in a readily reportable format.