Asked by: Lord McColl of Dulwich (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many asylum applications have been (1) made, and (2) accepted over the last 10 years, in total and in each of those years.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Please find the figures in the table below.
Table 1: Number of Asylum Claims and Number of Grants of Protection or Other Leave at Initial Decision (October 2015 – September 2025)
Period | Asylum Claims | Grants of Protection or Other Leave (at initial decision) |
October 2015-September 2016 | 41,981 | 10,556 |
October 2016-September 2017 | 34,645 | 9,279 |
October 2017-September 2018 | 36,717 | 9,186 |
October 2018-September 2019 | 44,145 | 13,867 |
October 2019-September 2020 | 39,979 | 10,697 |
October 2020-September 2021 | 45,535 | 11,897 |
October 2021-September 2022 | 88,213 | 15,533 |
October 2022-September 2023 | 94,132 | 38,098 |
October 2023-September 2024 | 97,091 | 52,742 |
October 2024-September 2025 | 110,051 | 58,148 |
Total | 632,489 | 230,003 |
Source: Asy_D01- Asylum Claims and Asy_D02 Asylum Initial Decisions of the ‘Asylum claim and initial decisions detailed datasets’, as part of Home Office’s ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Figures include both main applicants and dependants. Grant figures reflect outcomes at the initial decision stage only.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the stability of funding for national active travel programmes.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
At the 2025 Spending Review, the Government announced £616 million of capital funding for active travel over the years 2026/27 to 2029/30. Long term funding settlements for local authorities will be agreed as part of wider Integrated Settlements for Mayoral Strategic Authorities and consolidated local transport settlements for other authorities.
The Government also announced £15.6 billion in total by 2031-32 for the Transport for City Regions (TCR) settlements, supporting them to invest in their local transport priorities, including promoting modal shift from cars to public transport, walking and cycling.
The Government plans to offer long term funding settlements over the 2025 Spending Review period for other national active travel programmes run by wider organisations, such as Bikeability and the National Cycle Network, following the conclusion of DfT business planning.
Asked by: Lord Moylan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have taken to ensure that Great British Railways will treat all its retail market participants, including the Great British Railways retailing unit, on a fair, equal and non-discriminatory basis.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to a fair and open rail retail market, in which Great British Railways (GBR) will sell tickets alongside, and compete with, independent retailers. Moreover, the retail industry management functions currently performed by the Rail Delivery Group will move to GBR.
To ensure fairness when GBR takes on these functions, the Government has announced a range of safeguards, including an industry code of practice. The code of practice will incorporate clear requirements for how GBR interacts with all market participants and impose separation of decision-making where relevant. It will be owned and managed by the Office of Rail and Road, and GBR’s licence will require compliance with it.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, what steps they are taking to ensure that staff cuts at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office do not affect the UK's influence on the women, peace and security agenda.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is committed to becoming a smaller, more agile organisation, better able to deliver tangible benefits for the British people. Staff reductions are being made strategically, with decisions guided by an organisational prioritisation exercise. The FCDO plans to publish indicative Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations for the next three years in the coming months, which will continue to reflect our commitment to the Women, Peace and Security agenda.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the reasons for the cuts to staff at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is committed to becoming a smaller, more agile organisation, better able to deliver tangible benefits for the British people. Staff reductions are being made strategically, with decisions guided by an organisational prioritisation exercise. The FCDO plans to publish indicative Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme allocations for the next three years in the coming months, which will continue to reflect our commitment to the Women, Peace and Security agenda.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria determined the order in which asylum accommodation hotels were prioritised for contract termination since 2023.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to closing all hotels accommodating asylum seekers and will do so in a controlled, managed and orderly manner. A range of factors are considered when selecting hotels for closure including contractual arrangements, geographical considerations and operational deliverability.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has she made of the potential implications for her policies of the outcome of the joint Ofsted and CQC Area SEND Inspection published on 13 May 2025.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Cambridgeshire local area partnership was inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) from 27 to 31 January 2025. The inspection outcome was that the local areas partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Five areas for improvement were identified and the department is working with the local partnership to monitor improvement in these five areas.
Where a council does not meet its duties, the department can take action that prioritises children’s needs and supports local areas to bring about rapid improvement. We offer a range of universal, targeted and intensive support through department-managed programmes, such as our sector led improvement Partners.
The current Ofsted/CQC area SEND inspection framework was launched in January 2023. All local areas are due to receive a full inspection under this framework by the end of 2027, driving better outcomes and standards in the system.
As part of our Plan for Change, the department is determined to fix the SEND system and restore the trust of parents. We will bring forward a full Schools White Paper early in the new year.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to recommendation 2 of the Strategic Defence Review: Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad, published on 2 June 2025, what recent progress he has made on establishing a roadmap for delivering deeper interoperability with NATO allies by January 2026.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Strategic Defence Review is clear that our defence policy is ‘NATO First’. The Armed Forces must be capable of operating as part of a NATO force by design. We are taking this forward with and through NATO, which will produce an Interoperability Plan for the Alliance by the end of the year. The Military Strategic Headquarters has appointed an interoperability champion to support the implementation of this plan.
The UK’s own roadmap for delivering deeper interoperability with NATO allies is being developed with and in support of our Integrated Force Design. Officials within the Department meet regularly to discuss these, however, information regarding the total number of meetings is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to recommendation 2 of the Strategic Defence Review, published on 2 June 2025, how many meetings have taken place within his Department on establishing a roadmap for delivering deeper interoperability with NATO allies by January 2026 since 2 June 2025.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Strategic Defence Review is clear that our defence policy is ‘NATO First’. The Armed Forces must be capable of operating as part of a NATO force by design. We are taking this forward with and through NATO, which will produce an Interoperability Plan for the Alliance by the end of the year. The Military Strategic Headquarters has appointed an interoperability champion to support the implementation of this plan.
The UK’s own roadmap for delivering deeper interoperability with NATO allies is being developed with and in support of our Integrated Force Design. Officials within the Department meet regularly to discuss these, however, information regarding the total number of meetings is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase the number of prosecutions for people arrested for upskirting.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We recognise the devastating impact of non-contact sexual offences, such as upskirting, have on victims and are committed to ensuring more perpetrators are bought to justice.
The Home Office has supported the development of new training for police on these crimes which was made available to all police forces in February. The training will help ensure officers use the principles from Operation Soteria when responding to or investigating these offences and understand how to identify risk factors to safeguard victims and disrupt offending.