Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the average workforce size of businesses that are eligible to sponsor worker visas.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Any UK business can apply for a sponsor licence, provided they comply with relevant requirements. Of the businesses listed on the register of licenced sponsors, the vast majority are Small and Medium-sized enterprises.
This Government will continue to reduce net migration, reduce our reliance on overseas recruitment and back British workers by investing in our resident workforce.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas a) the Department for Culture Media and Sport, b) the Arts Council, c) the National Archives, d) the British Library, e) the British Museum, f) Historic England, g) the Imperial War Museum, h) the National Gallery, i) the Science Museum Group, j) the Victoria and Albert Museum, k) the Wallace Collection, l) the BBC, m) Channel 4, n) Historic Royal Palaces and o) the Royal Parks have sponsored since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The requested data is not held centrally in a reportable format.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas a) the Metropolitan Police Service and b) Police Scotland have sponsored since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
UKVI does not publish data on visas sponsored by individual sponsors.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of people whose visa expired since 4 July 2025 who have not (a) renewed their visa and (b) left the UK; and how many and what proportion of those people have been detained for overstaying their visa.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Removals of those with no right to be here have risen significantly under this government, with over 35,000 people removed - 13% more than the same period 12 months prior. Of the total returns since 5 July 2024, 10,191 were asylum related returns. This is an increase of 28% compared to the same period 12 months prior.
The Home Office only detains individuals when there is a realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable timeframe. As set out in legislation, an individual becomes liable to removal from the UK if "the person requires leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom but does not have it". The Home Office does not routinely categorise immigration offenders by the manner in which they became irregular, and a breakdown of those who have been detained after overstaying a visa could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many newly arrived illegal migrants have been provided Government funded accommodation since 4 August 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
In accordance with the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and subsistence support whilst their application for asylum is being considered.
Data, published quarterly, on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including accommodation type, can be found within the Asy_D11 tab of our most recent statistics release. Immigration system statistics data tables - www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release, with the latest information published 30 June 2025, and the next quarterly figures are due to be released later this month in November 2025.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of (a) consultations and (b) reviews conducted by her Department since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not centrally held in an easily accessible form as there are no expenditure categories that just cover consultations or reviews.
Due to this any response could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of visa holders who were granted a visa who did not have basic proficiency in English on entry in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
No such estimate has been made of the number of visa holders who did not have basic proficiency in English on entry.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who breached the terms of their visa were subsequently granted indefinite leave to remain since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office as well as the manual checking of records and, therefore, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of newly arrived illegal migrants that will be deported to France in 2025/26.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Returns to France under the UK-France returns agreement commenced on 18 September 2025.
This is a pilot that we want to expand and therefore the numbers will vary. We will not go into the operational details as this would provide criminal smuggling gangs with information that they may use to continue to their vile trade.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of the number of visas which have expired without (a) renewal, (b) transfer to another visa type and (c) acquiring indefinite leave to remain in each of the past five years.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes immigration statistics on a quarterly basis in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. The relevant data for this request could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.