Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the number of people seeking asylum in the UK in the last five years; and what proportion of people seeking asylum in the UK in the last five years have done so through safe routes.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of asylum applications received are published in table Asy_D01 of the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the year ending June 2022. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the ‘summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on asylum and resettlement.

The publication does not include information on how asylum seekers travelled to the UK. Some, but not all, asylum seekers arrive via small boats. Information on small boat arrivals who claim asylum can be found in the ‘How many people do we grant asylum or protection to?’ chapter of the Immigration Statistics quarterly release.

Asylum is separate to the following ‘safe and legal entry routes’:

• Resettlement, including via the Afghan Resettlement Programme
• Family reunion visas
• BN(O) Hong Kong visas

Ukraine Family, Sponsorship and Extension Scheme visas