Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate has been made of the economic impact of housing (a) refugees and (b) asylum seekers in Ipswich.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office works closely with local authorities and takes into account the pressures associated with providing asylum accommodation. We continue to engage with local authorities to manage these impacts, including on their wider statutory responsibilities and local plans.
To support this work, the Home Office administers a range of grants to help local authorities meet the costs of accommodating asylum seekers.
Costs associated with asylum accommodation and support are reported at a national level in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of housing (a) refugees and (b) asylum seekers in Ipswich on social cohesion.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We have a set of Asylum Accommodation Plans which take an evidence-based approach to the procurement and occupancy of Dispersal Accommodation; ensuring we are finding suitable accommodation to fulfil our statutory duty, while considering the impacts on local areas.
The Home Office continues to work with local government to allocate asylum seekers based on a range of evidence, including the availability of housing, pressure on services and community cohesion.
Whatever decisions are made regarding specific locations, we are clear that the impact on communities must be minimised.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Suffolk County Council on the (a) social and (b) economic impact of housing (i) refugees and (ii) asylum seekers on the local area.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office continues to work closely with local authorities to manage all the pressures arising from the provision of asylum accommodation including the impact on wider local authority obligations and plans.
The Home Office has delivered various grants through which we provide funds to support local authorities housing asylum seekers.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many failed asylum seekers are residing in Suffolk.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of asylum seekers in receipt of support, by support type and by local authority, is published in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum support detailed datasets’.
Individuals receiving Section 4 support have had their asylum claim refused but they are destitute and there are reasons that temporarily prevent them from leaving the UK. Please note that Section 95 support data includes some failed asylum seekers who had children in their household when their appeal rights were exhausted.
The latest data relates to as at 30 June 2025. Data for as at 30 September 2025 will be published on 27 November 2025. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is the estimated annual cost of providing (a) healthcare, (b) education, and (a) welfare support to illegal migrants in (i) the UK and (b) in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the information sought in these questions at the level of granularity requested.
Collating and verifying that information for the purposes of answering these questions could only be done at disproportionate cost and would also require the exclusion of any commercially sensitive material.
However the Home Office publishes all available information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and accounts at Home Office annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK(opens in a new tab).
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding asylum claims there are; and what the average time taken is for those claims to reach a final decision.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘asylum detailed datasets’ as part of the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on the number of claims awaiting an initial decision, broken down by duration, is published in table Asy_D03. The latest data relates to the year ending June 2025. For further information on the data, see the notes pages of the tables.
Data on the average processing times of claims is not currently published.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of unresolved asylum claims on local (a) councils and (b) services in Suffolk; and what additional resources she is providing to Suffolk Council to help mitigate that impact.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office continues to work closely with local authorities to manage all the pressures arising from the provision of asylum accommodation including the impact on wider local authority obligations and plans.
The Home Office has delivered various grants through which we provide funds to support local authorities housing asylum seekers.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will list the countries with which the Government is conducting negotiations for the return of illegal migrants. started.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Listing the countries with which the Government is conducting negotiations relating to the return of illegal migrants, either to their country of origin or a country through which they travelled to the UK, would be unhelpful in fostering and building on relations which are vital in supporting the tackling of illegal migration and targeting the gangs that prey on the vulnerable.
Bilateral returns agreements are one of many tools that facilitate returns and support international returns co-operation.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her priorities are to tackle illegal immigration; and how these differ from her immediate predecessor.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
As the Home Secretary has set out, she will do whatever it takes to secure our borders; working to restore order to the asylum system, ensuring that the rules are properly respected and enforced, and working upstream to tackle those facilitating illegal migration.
The now embedded Border Security Command (BSC) is leading the national response to preventing small boats crossing the English Channel. The BSC work closely with the National Crime Agency, Border Force, Immigration Enforcement, and overseas counterparts in countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Iraq. This collaborative approach has already led to widely publicised raids, arrests, and new bilateral agreements that will further strengthen enforcement and intelligence-sharing over the coming months.
To ensure we restore order to the asylum system, we are committed to meaningful reform of our current immigration system and processes. We will legislate to reform our approach to the application of Article 8 in the immigration system. Alongside this we will also pursue international reform, working closely with our partners in the Council of Europe. These reforms will restore the correct balance between individual rights and the wider public interest of controlling migration.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the cost of housing asylum seekers in (a) hotels, (b) private rental accommodation and (c) council housing in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts at Home Office annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK.