Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question
To ask the Right hon. Member for Kenilworth and Southam, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, whether the Electoral Commission has provided guidance to electoral registration officers on whether British citizens who have a dwelling in the UK which they periodically occupy and an overseas dwelling which they also occupy can register on the UK electoral roll as a domestic, non-overseas elector.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Commission’s guidance for Electoral Registration Officers in England, Scotland and Wales sets out eligibility requirements.
A person must be resident at the address at which they want to be registered. Residence has a particular meaning in electoral law and is not equivalent to residence for other purposes. Normally, a person is resident at an address for electoral purposes if it is their permanent home address.
When making a determination on someone’s residence, Electoral Registration Officers will need to consider the circumstances of the applicant, including the purpose they are present at a particular address.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question
To ask the Right hon. Member for Kenilworth and Southam, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what guidance or advice the Electoral Commission has given to local authorities on whether employees of a district or county council can serve as a councillor of a shadow unitary authority for that area.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Electoral Commission outlines the disqualification criteria at each relevant election in its guidance for candidates and agents. Due to the complexity of the rules, it does not provide direct advice on whether someone is qualified or disqualified from standing. Instead it recommends that candidates seek their own legal advice if in doubt about their eligibility.
In its role supporting Returning Officers to deliver well-run elections, it has advised them to raise any queries about the matter with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Home Secretary's speech on immigration, published on 5 March 2026, if she will publish the (a) evidential basis and (b) breakdown of the costs of the £10 billion estimate for the cost of low-skilled workers and their dependents that will qualify for settlement.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The methodology behind the figures cited in the Home Secretaries speech were published 5 March 2026, see here: Estimated lifetime net fiscal costs for care workers and their adult dependants - GOV.UK.
Proposals for introducing an earned settlement model, as set out in the Command Paper “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement” (CP1448), were subject to a public consultation, which opened on 20 November 2025 and closed on 12 February 2026.
The responses to the consultation are being reviewed and analysed. Implementation of the final earned settlement arrangements will be subject to economic and equality impact assessments, which will be published in due course.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the answer of 16 April 2026 to Question 125400, on Asylum: Finance, whether it is her Department's policy that some of the costs of asylum seekers should be met from council taxpayers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Asylum Dispersal Grant supports local authorities with a contribution to the costs and pressures of accommodating asylum seekers across all eligible accommodation types in their area. The grant is not intended to meet full costs, but to provide a contribution towards costs incurred by councils, consistent with affordability, value for money and the Local Government Funding Doctrine.
The Home Office does not hold a single estimate of the total costs incurred by councils in delivering the services outlined in the Asylum Dispersal Grant Funding Instruction, as costs vary significantly by local authority. Each local authority is free to determine how best to utilise the funding but for monitoring and evaluation purposes must be able to demonstrate that they have fulfilled the eligibility conditions in supporting Asylum Seekers in their area.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question
To ask the Right hon. Member for Kenilworth and Southam, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, whether the Electoral Commission has made an assessment of the average cost to a local authority of holding and administering a (a) Parliamentary, (b) combined authority mayoral and (c) local council ward by-election.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Electoral Commission has not made an assessment on the average cost of holding and administering elections, as it is not responsible for funding elections. The UK Government, through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, provides funding for the administration of parliamentary by-elections. The Combined authority and local authority will fund the cost of running their own by-elections respectively.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Home Office press release, 15 April 2026, on Asylum hotels close as government scales up use of large sites, what recent statistics her department has collated and now holds on (a) the number of asylum hotels and (b) the number of asylum seekers in each individual hotel.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly. We have already reduced the number of asylum seekers in asylum hotels by 35% in the past year (to the end of March 2026) and overall asylum support costs by 15% in the last financial year (to the end of March 2025).
The number of hotels currently in use as asylum accommodation, fewer than 190, remains significantly below hotel usage at its peak under the previous government in summer 2023, when more than 400 hotels were in use.
The Home Office publishes statistics on a quarterly basis detailing the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated including numbers accommodated in hotels. These statistics can be found at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the answer of 16 April 2026, to Question 125400, on Asylum: Finance, and the statement that the grant is not intended to meet full costs, whether an assessment has been made of what average proportion of the full costs are funded by the Asylum Dispersal Grant.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Asylum Dispersal Grant supports local authorities with a contribution to the costs and pressures of accommodating asylum seekers across all eligible accommodation types in their area. The grant is not intended to meet full costs, but to provide a contribution towards costs incurred by councils, consistent with affordability, value for money and the Local Government Funding Doctrine.
The Home Office does not hold a single estimate of the total costs incurred by councils in delivering the services outlined in the Asylum Dispersal Grant Funding Instruction, as costs vary significantly by local authority. Each local authority is free to determine how best to utilise the funding but for monitoring and evaluation purposes must be able to demonstrate that they have fulfilled the eligibility conditions in supporting Asylum Seekers in their area.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is the average number of asylum seekers accommodated in an asylum hotel in each year from 2020.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes statistics on a quarterly basis detailing the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated including numbers accommodated in hotels. These statistics can be found in at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK Asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support detailed datasets, year ending March 2026.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 19 May 2026 to Question 441 on Asylum: Hillingdon, how much funding is being allocated to Hillingdon for 2026-27.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office publish annual grant funding data (Government Grants Data and Statistics) where you can find details of grant levels by local authority area broken down per year once available. The Home Office does not publish any additional information.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 21 May 2026, to Question 199, whether the National Crime Agency will be adopting the anti-Muslim hostility definition.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government encourages the adoption of the definition across the public, private and third sectors, and them to consider how this definition applies in their contexts.
The government will refer to the definition when developing and revising relevant policy. We encourage relevant organisations, employers and sectors to do the same – with the definition designed for organisations to use in ways that they consider to be useful and lawful.