Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing emergency visas to students in Gaza who have confirmed UK university places; and whether her Department has had recent discussions with UK universities on facilitating safe passage for affected students.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government provided exceptional support to enable the departure of Chevening Scholars and fully funded scholarship students from Gaza, for students whose courses began before 31 December 2025. This support was for students who met the relevant requirements of the Immigration Rules.
The Government is reviewing the impact of the policy implemented to-date, and any decision on further support will depend on the evolving international situation. We will continue to keep the policy under review.
This has been a cross-Government initiative and the Home Office, Department for Education and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office have engaged with Higher Education Institutions throughout this process.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Oral Statement of 18 November 2025 on Asylum Policy (Official Report, Vol.775, c.509-513), whether equalities impact assessments have been made for the new measures announced.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Specific Equality Impact Assessments will be produced for individual policies in due course. These will be kept under review to ensure that there are no unintended impacts on people with protected characteristics.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Oral Statement of 20 November 2025 on A Fairer Pathway to Settlement (Official Report, Vol.775, c.889-891), whether equalities impact assessments have been made for (a) the decision to extend the standard settlement qualification time from five to ten years and (b) the other measures she announced would go for consultation.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The new earned settlement model outlined in A Fairer Pathway to Settlement has been subject to an equality impact assessment. Equality impact assessments are kept under regular review.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department carried out an economic impact assessment prior to suspending refugee family reunion.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Impacts on vulnerable individuals and equalities considerations are at the front and centre of our work. As required through the Public Sector Equality Duty, we consider equality impacts throughout the policy development process, refugee family reunion is no exception.
The Home Office has carried out and published an Economic Note on the changes to the Immigration Rules on 4 September 2025.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department carried out an equality impact assessment prior to suspending refugee family reunion.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Impacts on vulnerable individuals and equalities considerations are at the front and centre of our work. As required through the Public Sector Equality Duty, we consider equality impacts throughout the policy development process, refugee family reunion is no exception.
The Home Office has carried out and published an Economic Note on the changes to the Immigration Rules on 4 September 2025.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her department plans to publish statistics on the time taken by newly recognised refugees to submit family reunion applications.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the compatibility of (a) the Government’s commitment to halving levels of violence against women and girls within a decade and (b) the detention of women in immigration removal centres.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Asylum-seeking victims must be treated as victims, first and foremost. We recognise the challenges asylum-seeking victims of VAWG can face and the VAWG Strategy will include more detail on our approach to migrant victims of VAWG. It is vital that we get this right, and we are committed to publishing the Strategy as soon as possible.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to provide community-based alternatives to immigration detention for women.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Department will keep under review the feasibility of alternatives to detention, taking account of effectiveness and cost efficiency, as part of our plans to transform the asylum and returns system.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of suspending refugee family reunion applications on (a) women, (b) children and (c) other vulnerable groups.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The suspension of the refugee family reunion route is temporary while the Government undertakes a full review and reform of the current family rules to ensure we have a fair and properly balanced system. In the meantime, those with protection status can use other family routes to sponsor a partner and child to come to the UK. Information relating these changes are published on gov.uk at Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC 1298, 4 September 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help reduce the criminalisation of asylum-seeking survivors of violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Asylum-seeking victims of VAWG must be treated as victims, first and foremost. We recognise the challenges asylum-seeking victims of VAWG can face and the VAWG Strategy will include more detail on our approach to criminalisation of victims of VAWG. It is vital that we get this right, and we are committed to publishing the Strategy as soon as possible.
We are committed to delivering an asylum process that is gender sensitive, building on the Government’s wider strategy to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG).
In addition, the Government provides support to migrant victims of VAWG through the Migrant Victims Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) and works with sector leads on this group to ensure they are part of the broader strategy on VAWG.