Apr. 04 2025
Source Page: Joint Fraud Taskforce management board minutes: 2025Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps is she taking to tackle fraudulent Certificates of Sponsorship as a route for illegal immigration.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Certificates of sponsorship (CoS) are electronic documents created by sponsors licensed by the Home Office. If we identify that a fraudulent, non-genuine CoS has been submitted, that does not match our records, we shall refuse the application.
Asked by: Martin Rhodes (Labour - Glasgow North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the number of children in the UK who are (a) stateless and (b) at risk of statelessness.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not available from published statistics and could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether non-Syrian nationals displaced by the Syrian civil war seeking asylum have had their claims paused following the general pause of Syrian asylum claims from December 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Following the fall of the Assad regime, the Home Office withdrew the Country Policy Information Notes and guidance relating to Syria and has temporarily paused all asylum interviews and decisions. The pause also applies those who have previously been habitually resident in Syria. The pause is being kept under constant review and when there is a clear basis upon which to make decisions, we will resume the processing of them.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on people who have been deported.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders (FNOs) by nationality and destination are published on a quarterly basis. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, and are currently available to the end of December 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.
In addition, a note providing an overview of the number of people who have been returned from the UK since 5 July 2024 was published on 31 March 2025, and can be found here: Returns from the UK from 5 July 2024 to 22 March 2025 - GOV.UK.
3,594 FNOs were returned in this period, which is an increase of 16% compared to 3,101 FNO returns in the same period 12 months prior (FNO returns include both enforced and voluntary returns).
Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.
We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who entered the UK on a visa and who now live in (a) asylum hotels and (b) other state-funded accommodation are from (i) Pakistan, (ii) Nigeria and (iii) Sri Lanka.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Data on the ‘Source of asylum claims in 2024’ was published by the Home Office on 30th March 2025. The remaining requested data is not available from published statistics and could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.