Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people who will be affected by the new Immigration Rules which make rough sleeping grounds for refusing or cancelling a person’s permission to be in the UK.

The new Immigration Rules which make provision for the refusal or cancellation of permission to stay in the UK on the basis of rough sleeping will be used sparingly, and as a last resort where a person repeatedly engages in anti-social behaviour and refuses offers of support.

If we cancel a person’s permission to stay in the UK, we will ask them to leave voluntarily with government support. Only if they refuse would we consider an enforced removal.