Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many recorded offences involved individuals with pending asylum applications in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The requested data on offences involving asylum-seekers is not currently published by the Home Office.
As explained in this note published in April, systems for collecting and compiling data related to foreign national offenders in the immigration system are currently undergoing a redesign. The Home Office is currently working towards a release of this data. At this stage, we are not in a position to detail what this will contain or the exact timing of the release.
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. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to publish more detailed statistics on criminal convictions among people with pending asylum claims.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The requested data on offences involving asylum-seekers is not currently published by the Home Office.
As explained in this note published in April, systems for collecting and compiling data related to foreign national offenders in the immigration system are currently undergoing a redesign. The Home Office is currently working towards a release of this data. At this stage, we are not in a position to detail what this will contain or the exact timing of the release.
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. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of individuals working without the legal right to do so in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold an estimate of the number of individuals working without the legal right to do so. Details of Immigration Enforcement activity to tackle illegal employment in the UK can be found in the Home Office’s published transparency data: Illegal working and enforcement activity to the end of September 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of asylum seekers on the safeguarding of children and young people.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
All those who claim asylum undergo a series of security checks against immigration and police databases and are screened to identify individuals who may have been involved in criminality both in the UK and outside the UK or are of national security interest. Further information regarding security checks during the asylum screening process is available in published policy guidance on GOV.UK at: Screening and routing.docx (publishing.service.gov.uk).
The Home Office takes the safety and welfare of all children extremely seriously and protecting vulnerable people is a cross-cutting departmental priority. Officials are constantly alert to any signs that a child is at risk of harm or abuse or may have been trafficked.
The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the correspondence of July 2025 from the Leader of Kent County Council on visas for social care workers from overseas, if she will publish her Department's response to Kent County Council.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government does not routinely publish Ministerial correspondence.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of accommodating asylum seekers with unknown or unverifiable criminal histories on public safety.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has a legal obligation to accommodate asylum seekers where they would otherwise be destitute. All asylum seekers undergo checks against policing and immigration databases.
Decisions on allocation of asylum seekers to accommodation are made with case-by-case consideration of an individual’s circumstances and needs, in line with published policy. Safeguarding and welfare remain a priority, and the Home Office works closely with statutory partners where required.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of asylum seeker hotels on (a) local crime rates and (b) police resource allocation.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The safety and wellbeing of the local communities in which asylum accommodation is located is of paramount importance. The Home Office works in collaboration with local authorities and other partners to ensure that accommodation sites are successfully managed and the impact upon the local community is minimised. Any incident relating to security or community cohesion is reported to the Home Office immediately, so any necessary changes can be made as soon as possible.
No one in the UK, including foreign nationals, asylum seekers or refugees, is above the law. Asylum seekers are clearly advised of the expectations the Home Office and accommodation providers have for them to behave responsibly while they are accommodated in Home Office properties and not to engage in any form of criminal or anti-social activity.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department records the number of repeat offenders within the asylum seeker population.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information you have requested is not available from published statistics.
The UK will always offer protection to those in genuine need, but we will not allow our asylum system to be exploited by those who commit crimes or endanger our communities.
Any Foreign National who is convicted of a crime, including those seeking asylum, are referred to the Home Office for deportation immediately following sentencing and will be excluded from protection under the Refugee Convention if they have committed a ‘particularly serious crime’ as defined in Section 72 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.
The government has also toughened the definition of a ‘particularly serious crime’ to include all sexual offence convictions that trigger notification requirements through another BSAI Bill amendment announced earlier this year. For the first time, foreign nationals on the sex offenders’ register will be automatically denied refugee status.
In the first year of this government over 35,000 individuals with no right to be here, including failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders, have already been returned - a 13% increase compared to the same period 12 months prior.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of asylum accommodation on women's safety in those communities.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The safety and wellbeing of the local communities in which asylum accommodation is located is of paramount importance. The Home Office works in collaboration with local authorities and other partners to ensure that accommodation sites are successfully managed and the impact upon the local community is minimised. Any incident relating to security or community cohesion is reported to the Home Office immediately, so any necessary changes can be made as soon as possible.
No one in the UK, including foreign nationals, asylum seekers or refugees, is above the law. Asylum seekers are clearly advised of the expectations the Home Office and accommodation providers have for them to behave responsibly while they are accommodated in Home Office properties and not to engage in any form of criminal or anti-social activity.
This Government is also delivering a cross-government transformative approach to halve violence against women and girls, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy to be published this year.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of using dispersal accommodation for asylum seekers on the availability of housing for British citizens.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Under the Immigration Act of 1999, any government has a legal obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute.
The Home Office and its accommodation providers work closely with local authorities across the country to ensure that local context, expertise and intelligence informs decision making regarding suitability of dispersed accommodation. Full Dispersal facilitates the procurement of dispersed accommodation in a fair, balanced and controlled manner.
The Home Office remains committed to working collaboratively with local authorities to ensure that any potential impact on local communities and areas are understood and minimised.