Oral Answers to Questions

Alex Norris Excerpts

Monday 17th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

1. What steps she has taken to ensure that the tendering process for immigration removal centre contracts is competitive.

[The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Alex Norris)]

The Home Office has a procurement policy of competition by default, actively engaging with suppliers via the Government “find a tender” service to generate interest and promote competition for immigration removal centre contracts. Bids are evaluated on both technical and price aspects to ensure the contracts we sign are effective and value for money.

[Calum Miller]

My constituents are very concerned about the Home Office’s race to reopen the Campsfield House immigration removal centre. The first contract for opening the centre was announced in June 2024, when this House was not sitting. The then Home Secretary announced that she intended to expand the facility in August 2024, when again the House was not sitting. I believe that contract has not yet been tendered. Will the Minister please provide my constituents with some reassurance that Ministers are not just racing to make announcements about this ahead of real need and in order to catch a headline, but are actually serious about using taxpayers’ money in an appropriate manner to look after and contain these issues?

[Alex Norris]

“Real need” is a very important phrase. The reality is that over this Government’s time in office, we have deported over 50,000 people who have no right to be here—the best period of time in 10 years in this regard. We do need that detention capacity. Things are moving at Campsfield, so perhaps I should meet the hon. Gentleman to give him a full brief on our plans there.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Minister for his previous answer. Does he agree that the main cause for the asylum backlog was the fact that, under the previous Government, decisions fell by 70%? What reassurance can he give my constituents in Harlow that this Government will tackle the issue we have inherited?

[Alex Norris]

I totally agree. The original sin in respect of what we are dealing with today—hotel use across the country and our pivot to military sites—was the choice of the previous Government to simply stop assessing applications. We are of course reversing that, but it is taking time to turn around their failure.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

2. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of implementing asylum policies similar to Denmark on asylum seekers and refugees.

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[Mr Speaker]

Order. Just before the Minister answers, let me say that the last case is sub judice, so please be careful with the answer.

[The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Alex Norris)]

I am grateful for that clarification, Mr Speaker.

We are totally clear that those who commit crimes should not get settlement or citizenship in this country; they should be removed. That is why removals have reached their highest level for a decade. We can do much more in this space, which is why the Home Secretary will make the statement that she is going to make later.

[Jacob Collier (Burton and Uttoxeter) (Lab)]

T5. In Staffordshire, there are proposals to limit the hours of police community support officers in the evening. I welcome the named police officers returning to my constituency, but will the Minister ensure that the neighbourhood policing guarantee will mean more PCSOs on our streets, not fewer?

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[Max Wilkinson (Cheltenham) (LD)]

Ahead of the Budget next week, the Labour Chancellor departed from years of silence on the matter by admitting that Brexit has been a disaster for our economy. Will the Labour Home Secretary follow the Chancellor’s lead by admitting that Brexit has also caused significant harm to this country’s ability to maintain order in our immigration and asylum system?

[Alex Norris]

I am slightly reluctant to enter into the Brexit theory of everything with the hon. Gentleman. The reality is that we have the settlement we have. The British people rightly want to understand why asylum numbers are falling across Europe but increasing in the UK, and that is why we are taking the actions we propose to take. He will not have to wait much longer to hear the detail.

[Mr Alex Barros-Curtis (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

T8. What steps is the Home Secretary taking to counter the rise of extremist narratives, whether domestic or foreign-backed, that seek to undermine our democratic processes?

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[Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth) (Ind)]

T6. Does the Home Secretary agree that if a migrant—legal or illegal—cannot speak English, claims benefits, lives in social housing, refuses to work, rejects integration, commits crime, and is a drain on our society or even actively hates Britain and wishes to do us harm, they should be removed from our country, regardless of how many millions of deportations that would inevitably result in?

[Alex Norris]

I am sad that the hon. Gentleman has a different characterisation of those who seek refuge in this country than the one I have from my own community —that is not my experience. We are clear that if individuals commit crime, there must be consequences, including their removal from this country. As I have said, the hon. Gentleman will not have to wait much longer to hear what the Home Secretary has to say, but I cannot recognise his characterisation.

[Grahame Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

As a lifelong political activist and trade unionist, I value free speech and the right to protest. Having lived through the miners’ strike, I know what it means when the state turns against working people and disregards their rights, so I am deeply concerned that the proposed amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill will allow police to prohibit marches, demonstrations and even picket lines simply because another such event has taken place in the same area. Can the Minister guarantee that this House will have sufficient time to debate and vote on those amendments?

[Bradley Thomas (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

T7. With the Government looking to impose visa sanctions to tackle illegal migration, why did they vote against including such measures in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, and if Labour MPs will not swallow these plans, what will the Home Secretary do as a back-up?

[Alex Norris]

In so many ways, the hon. Gentleman is ahead of his time—I may well be the first person to accuse him of that. He will have the opportunity to hear from the Home Secretary about our plans regarding visa sanctions; he just has to wait a little bit longer.

[Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)]

Crimes committed by grooming gangs are among the most horrific imaginable; victims feel the devastating impact for the rest of their life. Does the Minister therefore agree that the findings of the national inquiry into grooming gangs should be implemented without delay, that the victims must be kept at the heart of our response, and that their voices and experiences must lead the inquiry, so that some justice can finally be delivered for those impacted?

[Mr Peter Bedford (Mid Leicestershire) (Con)]

The Home Office has requested transitional accommodation for asylum claimants, following the closure of Garats Hay in my constituency. However, neither Leicestershire county council nor Charnwood borough council has been consulted or received any additional funding for this extra burden. Why are these councils being bypassed, and will they get the funding that they need?

[Alex Norris]

All local authorities get an extra payment of £1,200 when someone in the supported estate ends up in their local authority, so I cannot quite understand that characterisation. If I have understood wrongly, I would be keen to meet the hon. Gentleman to understand his point, because we appreciate that there is an impact on local communities. We want to make sure that things go as smoothly as possible for the people who live in them, and we want to get this right.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

Hartlepool police do a magnificent job, but like police in the rest of the Cleveland force area, they are hamstrung by a funding formula that is broken. The victims core grant works out at £7 a crime in my constituency. Down the road in North Yorkshire, the figure is £19 a crime. That is unfair and unjust. Can the Minister please commit to fixing this fundamental unfairness?

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[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

It is often reported that a high proportion of people who enter the country illegally do so without any reliable identifying documentation. Can any Minister say, in percentage terms, roughly what the proportions are of illegal immigrants who do and do not have documentation?

[Alex Norris]

I will have to follow up in writing with the specific percentages for the right hon. Gentleman, but I assure him and the House that we are doing full biometric checks at the front door. We are checking against European databases, as well as our own databases, to make sure that we know who is here and, if there is any offending history, what that history is.

[Callum Anderson (Buckingham and Bletchley) (Lab)]

Returning to rural crime, I pay tribute to the work that the Thames Valley police rural crime taskforce is doing for rural communities and farmers in the Buckingham and Bletchley constituency. Can the Minister set out more detail of how the national rural crime strategy will complement the work already being done by local forces? Will that strategy be complemented by a long-term funding model?

[Lee Anderson (Ashfield) (Reform)]

One of the major pull factors for illegal migrants crossing the channel is the fact that they can get jobs quite easily. Does the Home Secretary still support an amnesty for all undocumented workers?

[Alex Norris]

That is not the position. We in the Government are resolute in our attempts to tackle illegal working, which does indeed act as a pull factor. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which will return to this House from the Lords on Wednesday, has important provisions for dealing with the loopholes in the gig economy that can allow for substitution and provide space for illegal working. If we want to stop that, we should get the Bill moving as quickly as we can, and I urge Members to ensure that we do.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

I understand that the permanent secretary at the Home Office recently appointed a single senior official to be responsible for asylum hotels. Will the Home Secretary please use her good offices to encourage that official to come to the Stanwell hotel in my Spelthorne constituency, so that they can see for themselves how inappropriate it is in the context of the surrounding village, and prioritise it for closure?

[Alex Norris]

The hon. Gentleman and I have had this conversation about Stanwell before, and he has pressed the matter with characteristic vigour. I can say to him and his community that we have committed to closing these hotels in this Parliament; they will not be open for a day longer than they have to be. When we close hotels, there will be clear criteria for choosing them for closure, and he has made many very good suggestions of grounds that might be used.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

In recent years, there has been a real increase in racist attacks in this country, including on our NHS staff; they have seen a rise of 55% in such attacks. Recently, two Sikh women were not just racially but sexually abused. Does the Home Secretary fear that implementing asylum policies like those in Denmark would exacerbate the problem, and embolden those who would create hate on our streets?

[Alex Norris]

The Minister for Policing and Crime recently met a delegation of Sikh colleagues to discuss that very important case. As for the hon. Gentleman’s broader point about Denmark, it is right that, given the challenges we face in this country, our policies seek to draw on best practice from around Europe and the world, and he will not have to wait much longer to see the fruits of that.