Asked by: Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's open consultation on Earned Settlement, due to close on 12 February 2026, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing transitional arrangements for migrants who entered the Skilled Worker route under previous rules with a legitimate expectation of settlement.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, has been subject to a public consultation which ran until 12 February 2026.
The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement. Transitional arrangements refer to temporary measures or rules put in place to manage the shift from one system, or policy framework, to another. Details of the earned settlement model, including any transitional arrangements for those already in the UK, will be finalised following thd consultation.
The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of including social care roles within any public service concession.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, announced changes to the mandatory requirements and qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. It was subject to a public consultation, which ran until 12 February 2026.
As part of this consultation, we are seeking views on the potential impact of the proposed changes on different groups, including those working in sectors such as social care. Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following the consultation.
The final proposals will also be subject to full economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether they will require their department and agencies to offer payroll deductions to all employees to enable them to join a credit union.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office introduced a new benefits platform in August 2025 which includes a wellbeing hub with financial education and support.
At the current time the Home Office is not intending to introduce a payroll deduction service for accessing credit unions.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 11 of the white paper entitled From Local to National: A New Model for Policing (CP1489), what her proposed timetable is for publishing new national policing guarantees.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary announced her plans to introduce a set of Local Policing Guarantees in the white paper “From Local to National: A New Model for Policing” published on 26 January. Local Policing Guarantees will set out minimum levels of service expected across frontline policing across England and Wales, and therefore, on a national basis. The Local Policing Guarantees will be complemented by the introduction of performance targets into the Police Performance Framework.
Publication of the Local Policing Guarantees and subsequent performance targets will happen as soon as possible following further engagement with the policing sector to provide assurances that the scope is reflective of operational policing.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her department records data on (a) Sikhs and (b) Jews as ethnic or religious data.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.
The ONS is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation, which concluded on 4th February.
We await the outcome of this review.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals granted Indefinite Leave to Remain since January 2025 had previously claimed means-tested benefits during their qualifying period of residency.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not held in a reportable format and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would require a manual trawl of case records to retrieve.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil servants are employed through Skilled Worker visas in the Home Office.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold a Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence and therefore, cannot sponsor individuals under the route.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on nursing staff working in the adult social care sector of proposals to change the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, announced changes to the mandatory requirements and qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. It is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.
As part of this consultation, we are seeking views on the potential impact of the proposed changes on different groups, including those working in sectors such as social care. Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following that consultation.
The final proposals will also be subject to full economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will publish all information it holds on child sexual exploitation committed by illegal migrants.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information you have requested is not available from published statistics and there is no immediate intention to publish them.
Work is currently underway to publish more detailed information on FNOs subject to deportation. Further information on this work can be found at: Statistics on foreign national offenders and the immigration system - GOV.UK.
In the twelve months between 1 February 2025 and 31 January 2026, over 5,600 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been returned from the UK under this government, a 12% increase on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets
In April 2025, the Home Office announced that it would – for the first time – categorise as a ‘particularly serious crime’ for the purpose of the Refugee Convention any conviction resulting in the offender being made subject to the notification requirements for sex offenders, regardless of the length of sentence they receive, thereby allowing the UK to exclude those individuals from being granted any right to claim asylum protections.
We will build on these reforms across the immigration system, as well as the asylum system, amending our policies and guidance to ensure we are upholding UK laws - taking action to prevent individuals who pose a danger to the British public from being allowed to stay in the UK, and taking much earlier action on a wider range of crimes.
We will set out more detailed reforms and stronger measures to ensure our laws are upheld, including streamlining and speeding up the removals process. That will include establishing new procedures so that the Home Office can more easily take enforcement and removal action and revoke visas in a much wider range of crimes where non-custodial sentences have been given, not just cases which are sent to prison.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which of her Department's officials informed US authorities that they would not observe the interrogation of Omar al Bayoumi in 2001.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
It is the longstanding policy of successive UK Governments not to comment routinely either on individual cases or intelligence and security matters.
These questions relate to ongoing civil legal proceedings in the United States; this imposes legal and procedural limits on the information that can be disclosed at this stage. The Government is therefore unable to comment further while litigation remains active.