Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is considering Group 2 refugees as part of its Public Funds Review as set out in the Government’s response to Recommendation 7 of the Windrush lessons learned review.

The Nationality and Borders Bill, including Clause 11 relating to the differentiation policy of refugees, is not yet law. Consideration of Group 2 refugees does not, therefore, fall within the scope of the Home Office’s review of the compliant environment in response to recommendation 7 of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review.

Changes to the policies being delivered through the Nationality and Borders Bill will be subject to appropriate impact assessments. We have already published an Equality Impact Assessment on 16 September 2021, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nationality-and-borders-bill-equality-impact-assessment. We will also be undertaking New Burdens Assessments prior to the policy being implemented, as part of the work to operationalise the Nationality and Borders Bill and the wider New Plan for Immigration.

More information will be made available when we have concluded the remainder of the policy development.