Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2020 to Question 37427 on Asylum: Applications, for what reasons only those medically qualified asylum seekers who have been waiting for 12 months or more for decisions on their applications can apply to work for the NHS during the covid-19 outbreak; and if she will make a statement.

Current policy allowing medically qualified asylum seekers to work if they have been waiting for 12 months or more on a decision is fully compliant with our domestic and international obligations.

Asylum seeker right to work is a complex issue. We are continuing to monitor the wider situation closely and, in compliance with Public Health England advice, are making continuous adjustments to our processes and procedures where appropriate and necessary to do so.