Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2024 to Question 8506 on Asylum: Employment, whether she plans to reduce the waiting time from 12 to six months for asylum seekers to apply for permission to work.

The Home Office’s priority remains to ensure that employers and employees who play by the rules are not undercut by people working illegally, or by unscrupulous employers exploiting their labour.

We have repeatedly resisted calls to relax our policy position on asylum seeker permission to work. Allowing asylum seekers the right to work sooner than under the current rules could enable migrants to bypass established work visa routes, and may act as an incentive for people to travel here illegally via dangerous routes. Asylum seekers do not need to make dangerous journeys to seek employment in the UK. There are various legal routes for those seeking to work in the UK under the Points Based System.