Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) asylum seekers and (b) migrants the Home Office plans to accommodate in Manston Barracks.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Manston consists of a variety of different accommodation facilities. These will be managed dynamically depending on numbers of arrivals, the makeup of those arrivals and the availability of onward accommodation.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much was paid to Cushman and Wakefield to draft the planning statement on Napier Barracks.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Accommodation costs including costs associated with the provision of goods and services related to accommodation 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.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will exclude children from transfer to her proposed offshore asylum processing centres.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government has made our position clear on this during committee and report stage for the Nationality and Borders Bill. To be definitive about exemptions from proposed offshore asylum processing at this stage would not only hamper its potential to be effective but also incentivise people smugglers to target the most vulnerable. This policy, alongside a suite of other critical measures, is designed to deter individuals from making dangerous and unnecessary journeys from safe countries, removing demand for organised criminal gangs operating small boats routes and avoid further tragedies in the English Channel.
Every removal will be in line with our domestic and international obligations. People in scope for removal will be able to rely on their rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights so as not to be transferred to a country where they would genuinely be at risk of inhuman and degrading treatment.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (a) what the five most common nationalities of asylum applicants making fresh claims to the UK in 2021 were and (b) how many fresh asylum applications were received by the UK from nationals of each of those five countries in 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
(121813) Our records indicate that a total of 6,760 Further Submissions in support of fresh applications for asylum were lodged in the United Kingdom in 2021.
(121814) The five most common nationalities that lodged Further Submissions in support of fresh applications for asylum in the United Kingdom in 2021 were:
Iraq | 1,179 |
Afghanistan | 921 |
Pakistan | 519 |
Iran | 497 |
China | 455 |
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many new asylum applications were submitted by individuals who had previously been refused asylum in the UK in 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
(121813) Our records indicate that a total of 6,760 Further Submissions in support of fresh applications for asylum were lodged in the United Kingdom in 2021.
(121814) The five most common nationalities that lodged Further Submissions in support of fresh applications for asylum in the United Kingdom in 2021 were:
Iraq | 1,179 |
Afghanistan | 921 |
Pakistan | 519 |
Iran | 497 |
China | 455 |
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people applied for UK asylum while in immigration detention in 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes statistics on people entering, leaving and in detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. This data is broken down by asylum and non-asylum related detainees and are published in table Det_01 of the ‘Detention summary tables’.
“Asylum-related detainees” relates to detainees who have claimed asylum at some point, not just while in detention and also includes failed asylum seekers as well as those with open claims. The data therefore is not a direct count of people who applied for asylum while in detention.
Data on people leaving detention while their asylum claim is considered are included in the ‘Bailed (Secretary of State or SoS)’ category and are published in table Det_04a of the ‘Detention summary tables’ with the latest data being for the year ending September 2021. However, this does not specify when the asylum claim was raised.
The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on detention.
Figures to the end of December 2021, will be published on 24 February 2022.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the safe and legal routes to the UK which are available to (a) refugees and (b) asylum seekers as of 13 January 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The UK has a long history of supporting refugees in need of protection. Our resettlement schemes have provided safe and legal routes for tens of thousands of people to start new lives in the UK. Since 2015 we have resettled over 26,000 refugees through our safe and legal routes directly from regions of conflict and instability.
The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6th January and will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.
In addition to our resettlement schemes, we also operate the following safe and legal routes:
Our New Plan for Immigration demonstrates a strengthening of Government-backed safe and legal routes to the UK, so those in need of protection don’t have to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers.
You can find more information on our safe and legal routes at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-and-borders-bill-safe-and-legal-routes-factsheet/nationality-and-borders-bill-factsheet-safe-and-legal-routes
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of fully devolving drug policy to the Scottish Government.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has no plans to devolve powers on drug policy, such as the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, to the Scottish Government and has made no assessment of the merits or demerits of doing so. While the legal framework on the misuse of drugs is reserved to the UK, the Scottish Government has its own approach to tackling drug misuse in areas where responsibility is devolved, including healthcare, criminal justice, housing and education.
Tackling drug misuse is a priority for this government and it is clear that action is needed across the country to reduce the harms caused. We are committed to working closely with the Scottish Government on this issue to improve the particular challenges of drug abuse in Scotland.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has any plans to devolve powers on drug policy to the Scottish Parliament.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has no plans to devolve powers on drug policy, such as the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, to the Scottish Government and has made no assessment of the merits or demerits of doing so. While the legal framework on the misuse of drugs is reserved to the UK, the Scottish Government has its own approach to tackling drug misuse in areas where responsibility is devolved, including healthcare, criminal justice, housing and education.
Tackling drug misuse is a priority for this government and it is clear that action is needed across the country to reduce the harms caused. We are committed to working closely with the Scottish Government on this issue to improve the particular challenges of drug abuse in Scotland.
Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which local authorities have expressed a willingness to accommodate Afghans arriving under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy or Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme; how many local authorities have offered accommodation; and how many accommodation units have been offered to date.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We continue to work with local authorities to source appropriate accommodation as quickly as possible for Afghan families who were evacuated to the UK. So far, over 300 local authorities across the UK have offered to house Afghan families. We would strongly urge every council across the country to contribute to this national effort. We are working across government and with local authorities to realise appropriate accommodation opportunities to meet the demands of this urgent national response.
There are around 11,000 individuals accommodated in bridging hotels across the UK who had been evacuated as part of Operation Pitting.
The Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme has not yet opened, however, we publish statistics on resettlement by local authority at Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)