Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lord Dubs, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his name on the Order Paper.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Murray of Blidworth) (Con)
My Lords, the latest immigration statistics published by the Home Office show that 143,377 people were waiting for an initial decision on their asylum claim as of September 2022, and that 15,987 people were granted asylum or other leave in the year ending September 2022. Of the 11,974 enforced or voluntary returns, there were 774 enforced or voluntary asylum-related returns in the year ending June 2022.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
In last month’s debate in the name of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury, my noble friend Lord Dubs made a very moving speech, where he said:
“The refugee issue is testing our humanitarian principles to the ultimate. Our response will determine what sort of country … we want to be … but particularly how we value our fellow human beings who have suffered greatly from … wars and conflicts.”—[Official Report, 9/12/22; col. 378.]
Given the lamentable performance of the Minister’s department, as we have heard from those figures just now, and the intemperate language used by the Home Secretary when she described asylum seekers as invaders, does he think this Government meet my noble friend’s humanitarian test?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
Yes, I do. The Prime Minister was clear in his remarks on 13 December that it is a key priority of the Government to address the unlawful crossings of the channel, to tackle illegal migration and to ease pressure on the asylum system. As the noble Lord knows, we will achieve that by doubling the number of caseworkers to help to clear the asylum backlog by the end of 2023, we will re-engineer the end-to-end process by reducing paperwork and interviews, and we will allocate dedicated resources to different nationalities in the asylum backlog.
Baroness Hamwee (LD)
My Lords, in speaking just before Christmas to the Justice and Home Affairs Committee of your Lordships’ House, which I am lucky enough to chair, the Home Secretary said that guidance for caseworkers was to be made shorter and easier to use. Can the Minister reassure the House that the Home Office is consulting experienced counsellors and therapists in the redesign so that the individual circumstances and experiences of each applicant can be properly assessed?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
Yes. Any such revised guidance will take into account input from a whole range of stakeholders, no doubt including those of the type mentioned by the noble Baroness.
Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)
My Lords, I know from my own experience when I was Minister for Immigration that when backlogs are large it is imperative to look after the most vulnerable people in custody. Why then did the Home Secretary end the system of annual investigations into the treatment of vulnerable adult detainees? Is the detention system working so well now that these investigations are no longer necessary, or are there some other protections for those people to ensure that the welfare of vulnerable adult detainees has not been compromised?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
Certainly the inspection of detention facilities will continue. I am not aware of any change in policy in relation to the particular category of detainees that the noble Lord mentioned, but I will make inquiries in the department and write to him on that.
Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)
My Lords, would the Minister tell the House what provision in the refugee convention, of which we are a party, permits us to refuse to even consider the asylum request of someone who arrives, irrespective of how they arrive?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
As the noble Lord will be aware, in the Rwanda decision, the High Court considered the application of Article 31 of the refugee convention. I commend the High Court’s reasoning to the noble Lord in answer to his question.
Baroness Berridge (Con)
In the debate in the name of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury, there was much discussion of the Ukraine situation and Hong Kong. To the general public, those schemes seem like asylum to a place of safety, but in fact they are technically visa schemes. Could my noble friend the Minister outline that we do not seem to have the same problem in relation to those schemes? If he does not have the figures to hand, could he write to confirm what the average wait time is for vulnerable groups applying for those visas?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
My noble friend is correct. I do not have to hand the figures on the wait for BNO applications from Hong Kong, which I think was the thrust of her question. I will find that out and write to her.
Lord Leong (Lab)
My Lords, on 13 December 2022, I asked the Minister about the post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by Hong Kongers who fled the crackdown by the ruling Communist Party and are currently seeking asylum here. I asked him:
“What assessment have the Government made to identify those suffering from PTSD?”
He replied:
“On the BNO Hong Kong cohort, I do not have the answer, and I will write to the noble Lord in relation to it.”—[Official Report, 13/12/22; col. 551.]
I am still waiting for that answer.
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
I am sorry to hear that the noble Lord has yet to receive an answer. I will chase it and endeavour to get a response to him as soon as I can.
Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)
My Lords, in his reply to the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, the Minister referred to a judgment which no doubt is available for anyone to read. However, for the benefit of the House, would he be prepared to summarise it? That would give an answer to the noble Lord’s question: what, in particular, allows the Government to discriminate between asylum seekers who arrive by one method and those who arrive by another?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
The 1951 convention describes the categories of people who might seek protection from their native country, and, as a result, they are entitled to make a claim for asylum. There is nothing in the text of the convention which limits the receiving nation state’s obligation to consider applications from various classes of nations. That is why we have international agreements; for example, when we were members of the European Union, there was an agreement that other European Union member nations were not able to lodge asylum claims within the United Kingdom.
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard (CB)
Would the Minister agree that it would be better if those waiting in that internal queue were able to work—better for them, the Exchequer and the country?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
I am afraid that I must disagree with the noble Lord. It is clear that one of the major pull factors for people crossing the channel is that they hope to work in Britain. Legally allowing people to work would increase the pull factors for them to embark on dangerous and illegal journeys across the channel.
Lord Coaker (Lab)
My Lords, time after time, we hear the Minister try to explain away the chaos of the Government’s asylum policy. Time after time, new legislation is announced, chasing headlines. Time after time, the Chamber hears the appalling asylum case figures, with the shocking human consequences, as we have just heard again today. I will ask about one example: when will the doubling of asylum caseworkers to 2,500, as briefed by the Prime Minister last year, happen? Yesterday, the Minister could not confirm that the recruitment of those caseworkers had even started. It is a shambles, is it not?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
The Home Office currently employs about 1,280 asylum decision-makers and will double the number of caseworkers to help to clear the asylum backlog by the end of next year. Recruitment and retention strategies are in place, with the aim of increasing staffing, reducing the output in the number of cases awaiting a decision and increasing outputs of decisions. We have increased the number of asylum caseworkers by 112%, from 597 staff in 2019-20. We will recruit more decision-makers, which will take our expected number of decision-makers to 1,800 by summer 2023 and to 2,500 by September. We have implemented a recruitment and retention allowance, which has reduced decision-maker attrition rates by 30%, helping us to retain experienced asylum decision-makers.
Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)
My Lords, at the end of October, 222 unaccompanied minors were unaccounted for in the system. In November, I asked the Minister what the figure was, and he said that he did not know. The Government have presumably made major progress on unaccompanied children in the system, so how many are currently unaccounted for?
Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)
As the noble Lord knows, local authorities have a statutory duty to protect all children, regardless of where they go missing from. On the concerning occasion when a child goes missing, those local authorities work closely with local agencies, including the police, urgently to establish their whereabouts and ensure that they are safe. Ending the use of hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is an absolute priority for the Government. We will have robust safe- guarding procedures in place to ensure that all children in our care are as safe and supported as possible, as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.