Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if his Department will issue guidance on the exceptional circumstances that would permit an asylum or human rights claim made by a national of a country listed under section 80AA of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 to be declared admissible.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Section 80A(5) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and section 6(5) of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 set out some examples of what may constitute exceptional circumstances, relevant to the substantive consideration of asylum claims and to removal under the Illegal Migration Act to s.80AA(1) listed states (respectively). These examples are neither exhaustive nor relevant to all cases, and do not purport to be.
Exceptional circumstances are not defined or limited in legislation, but will be considered and applied on a case-by-case basis where it is appropriate.
When we commence and implement the wider measures as set out in section 59 of the Illegal Migration Act 2023, we will provide updated guidance to assist caseworkers in their consideration of exceptional circumstances, and the wider provisions.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the (a) needs and (b) vulnerabilities of LGBTQI+ people as part of Operation Maximise.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The safety and wellbeing of asylum seekers in our care is of paramount importance to the Home Office. We expect high standards from all of our providers, and we have a robust governance framework in place to manage service delivery of the Asylum Accommodation Support Contracts (AASC). Further details can be found at: AASC_-_Schedule_2_-_Statement_of_Requirements.pdf.
Section G.2 of the AASC provides examples of factors which accommodation providers should consider as part of their case-by-case assessment of an individual’s needs in room sharing, including whether they identify as LGBT. This aligns with the allocation of accommodation policy which sets out that the circumstances of every person in asylum accommodation should be assessed individually. Where an individual need or safeguarding concern exists, accommodation may be provided to meet such need.
Additionally, the Home Office has published the Asylum Support Contracts Safeguarding Framework at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-support-contracts-safeguarding-framework. This framework sets out a joint, overarching approach, as well as the key controls and reporting mechanisms in place, across the AASC contracts, for safeguarding arrangements. All asylum seekers have access to a 24/7 AIRE (Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility) service provided for the Home Office by Migrant Help where they can raise any concerns regarding accommodation or support services and they can get information about how to obtain further support.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the article by the former Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Rt hon. Member for Fareham, entitled Too many churches are facilitating bogus asylum claims. This must stop, published by the Telegraph on 3 February 2024, whether his Department holds evidence of churches facilitating high levels of false asylum claims.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Every asylum case is determined on its individual merits and on a case by case basis. The Home Secretary and the Church are working together to better scrutinise asylum claims based on religious persecution and ensure those in genuine need are supported, and that there are no loopholes to claiming asylum in this country.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans implement the decision of case HU/00830/2021, served to his Department on 26 June 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We do not comment on individual cases.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to publish the review into the Tier 1 investor visa route.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement of 12 January 2023 provided the findings of the review and represented the Home Office’s commitments given by a previous Home Secretary (the Rt Hon Amber Rudd) to undertake a review of the operation of the Tier 1 Investor visa route between 30 June 2008 and 06 April 2015. The Tier 1 (Investor) route was closed on 17 February 2022. The Government will not be publishing anything further in connection with the review.
As set out in the Home Secretary’s statement, the review found a small minority of individuals connected to the route were at risk of having obtained their wealth through illicit or criminal means. Given the importance of ensuring the effective and independent law enforcement processes of our operational partners, we will not be commenting further.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Ukrainians have applied for refugee status in the UK outwith the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme since March 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum by nationality in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2023. Data up to the end of 2023 will be published on 29 February 2024.
Further information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria are used for selecting people to be accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
We assess every individual against an agreed suitability criteria, guidance on this can be found here: Allocation of accommodation (publishing.service.gov.uk).
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.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data his Department holds on the (a) longest and (b) average length of time people are held in Brook House immigration removal centre.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Home Office publishes data on detention in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on length of detention for people leaving detention is published in table Det_D03 of the ‘Detailed detention dataset’. The latest data relates to the end of September 2023. However this data is not broken down by last place of detention as this does not show where an individual spent their time in detention. In some cases, an individual may have spent a period of time detained elsewhere before being moved to their last place of detention.
Data on people leaving detention by last place of detention is published in table Det_04c of the ‘Detention summary tables’. However, this data is not broken down by length of detention, for the reason given above.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied children seeking asylum were in Home Office hotel accommodation as of 24 January 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
As of the 24 January 2024, there were no children accommodated in the remaining UASC hotel.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had discussions with his Irish counterpart on trends in irregular migration flows via Irish ports in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office has discussed migration with the Irish Department of Justice on several occasions over the last 12 months, including on matters relating to irregular migration trends via Ireland.