Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what funding the Government has provided to support integration of British National (Overseas) visa holders in each of the last five years.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is leading the Government's work on welcoming Hong Kong BN(O)s into the UK. While the Department has run integration programmes such as the Controlling Migration Fund and the Integration Area Programme, these were not tailored to BN(O) communities.

The new BN(O) route and access to public services is an unprecedented offer following China’s passing of the National Security Law. This new law significantly impacts the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong and since the situation that BN(O) status holders find themselves in has changed, it is right that their rights and entitlements in the UK change too.

The visa route reflects the historic and moral commitment to the people of Hong Kong who chose to retain their ties to the UK by taking up BN(O) status at the point of Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997.