Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out a timeline for announcing changes to the BN(O) visa scheme.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 9 February, the Home Secretary announced the expansion of eligibility for the BN(O) route. BN(O) status holders’ adult children who were under 18 at the point of Hong Kong’s handover on 1 July 1997 will be able to apply independently of their parents. This expansion will close a gap in eligibility that has led to unfair outcomes within families and ensure we continue to honour our historic and moral commitment to the people of Hong Kong.
We intend to lay the necessary changes to the Immigration Rules in March with the route open to applications from this additional cohort later this Spring.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent and detect the trafficking of sexual exploitation victims through airports.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all victims of modern slavery and human trafficking are provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives and that those responsible for exploiting vulnerable people are brought to justice.
Modern slavery is a top priority for Border Force. All frontline Border Force Officers are trained in how to identify and deal with potential victims of modern slavery and human trafficking, as well as those who seek to exploit them. Border Force also has a network of specially trained Safeguarding and Modern Slavery (SAMS) teams based in all regions. The SAMS officers are operational and ensure children and vulnerable people, including potential victims of modern slavery, are dealt with effectively.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a statutory requirement for the Animals in Science Regulation Unit to publish an annual report that includes details of incidents of non-compliance with the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, or with licence conditions.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Animals in Science Regulation Unit has routinely published its Annual Report since 2011 and will continue to do so.
The Report sets out all confirmed non‑compliance cases with the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and any enforcement actions taken.
The Reports are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit-annual-reports
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent general aviation aircrafts, landing at small airports, airfields and airstrips, from facilitating the smuggling of (a) people, (b) drug and (c) arms.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The security of the UK border remains our top priority, and this government is committed to strengthening border security. Border Force conducts robust security checks on those arriving into the UK, including 100% checks on all notified general aviation flights and spot checks at aerodromes to reinforce security.
Border Force allocates resources based on assessed risk, applying intelligence and targeting techniques. We have significantly reduced the number of aerodromes authorised to handle international or Common Travel Area flights by 85%, and anyone who fails to submit the required information prior to flying faces civil penalties.
Border Force has implemented a range of initiatives to address vulnerabilities. These include:
• Substantially reducing the number of aerodromes permitted to handle flights to and from the UK.
• Introducing a civil penalties regime for non-compliance with airfield designation requirements.
• Person details checked on all notified GA flights.
• The General Aviation (Persons on Board, Flight Information and Civil Penalties Regulations), which came into force on 6 April 2024, require that specified information about General Aviation flights and persons onboard must be submitted online and in advance of departure to Home Office Systems. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in civil penalty.
• Working closely with the National Crime Agency and the police to counter threats such as smuggling, immigration crime and terrorism at UK airfields has resulted in seizures of Class A Drugs (in total approx 130kgs) at small airfields and identification of undocumented arrivals, leading to multiple criminal convictions and working with partners to identify non-compliant GA flights.
• Regular Home Office engagement with the GA community representatives and cross-government partners.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make it his policy to exempt the BNO visa scheme from the proposed extension of the standard qualifying period for settlement.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to supporting members of the Hong Kong community who have relocated to the UK and those who may come here in future.
I welcomed the opportunity to listen to the views of Members in the recent 8th September Westminster Hall Debate on settlement.
We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year. All will be welcome to participate. We will provide details of how the scheme will work after that consultation.
We regularly engage with representatives of the Hong Kong diaspora in the UK on issues related to the BN(O) visa and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish a full impact assessment for the most recent statement of changes to the immigration rules on the care sector.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
It is our intention to publish the Impact Assessment (IA) at the earliest opportunity. A technical annex (Restoring control over the immigration system: technical annex (accessible) - GOV.UK) was published alongside the Immigration White Paper setting out the impact of some of the key policy changes.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will have discussions with Greater Manchester Police on the potential impact of not supplying naloxone to frontline officers on levels of drug-related deaths.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Naloxone is an important lifesaving medicine to respond to suspected opioid overdoses, when used alongside other first aid measures, and is mitigating the threat posed by synthetic opioids.
Work has been ongoing for several years led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Home Office to support police carriage of this medicine, leveraging officers’ frequent interactions with individuals at risk of overdose to reduce drug-related deaths. In September 2024 and May 2025, I wrote to Chief Constables in England and Wales to reiterate my support for all police forces to roll-out the voluntary provision of naloxone to operational officers.
The Home Office and NPCC recently published data showing that, as of December 2024, approximately 7,300 police officers in England and Wales regularly carry naloxone. The medicine had been administered over 550 times by police since June 2019, and only two out of 43 police forces had no plans to carry. One of those forces is Greater Manchester Police.
Whilst the provision of naloxone for police officers remains voluntary and is an operational decision for Chief Constables, the Government is strongly supportive of forces making this highly effective antidote available.
The NPCC and the Home Office are in ongoing dialogue with all police forces on this topic.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect places of worship in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
This Government is absolutely committed to protecting the right of individuals to freely practise their religion at their chosen place of worship, and to making our streets and communities safer, including providing funding through the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant and the Protective Security for Mosques scheme.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a standalone offense of assaulting a retail worker that includes (a) bank and (b) building society workers.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 creates a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing cases of assault against public facing workers. It applies where an assault is committed against those providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing a service to the public, including public-facing roles in banks and building societies.
Through our Crime and Policing Bill, this Government has also introduced a specific standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker to help tackle the epidemic of shop theft and violence towards shop workers that we have seen in recent years, and protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect migrant social care workers from (a) substandard accommodation, (b) non-payment of wages, (c) contracts containing repayment clauses and (d) other exploitative employment relationships.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government condemns the exploitation of international care workers by rogue employers in the adult social care sector and continues to take robust action against this unscrupulous behaviour.
We have recently implemented a prohibition on Skilled Worker sponsors recouping sponsorship costs from those they sponsor, and those doing so now risk losing their licence.
Sponsor licences can also be revoked if workers are not paid correctly and on 9 April we further clarified our Skilled Worker salary assessment rules to make clear that sponsors cannot inflate wages by including loans for the worker’s immigration application.
We are also working to ensure sponsorship and employment systems are more strongly aligned.