Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of the number of taxis that have taken asylum seekers between (a) contingency and (b) bridging hotel accommodation from (i) Aberdeen to (ii) Glasgow in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Bridging hotel accommodation was previously used to temporarily house Afghans resettling in the UK and has not been used to accommodate asylum seekers. As of 31 August 2023, we have successfully ended the use of bridging hotels for legally resettled Afghans.
Costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information. The total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK.
The AASC Requirements below gives a detailed breakdown of all of the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and to the standards we expect. Full details of our polices:
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of the number of taxis that have taken asylum seekers between (a) contingency and (b) bridging hotel accommodation from (i) Glasgow to (ii) Aberdeen in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Bridging hotel accommodation was previously used to temporarily house Afghans resettling in the UK and has not been used to accommodate asylum seekers. As of 31 August 2023, we have successfully ended the use of bridging hotels for legally resettled Afghans.
Costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information. The total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK.
The AASC Requirements below gives a detailed breakdown of all of the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and to the standards we expect. Full details of our polices:
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of transporting asylum seekers in taxis between (a) contingency and (b) bridging hotels in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Bridging hotel accommodation was previously used to temporarily house Afghans resettling in the UK and has not been used to accommodate asylum seekers. As of 31 August 2023, we have successfully ended the use of bridging hotels for legally resettled Afghans.
Costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information. The total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK.
The AASC Requirements below gives a detailed breakdown of all of the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and to the standards we expect. Full details of our polices:
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2024 to Question 23168 on Asylum: Rwanda, how many immigration removal centres make up the detention capacity of around 2200 people; and if he will list those centres.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Home Office currently operates seven immigration removal centres (IRCs) throughout the UK (six in England and one in Scotland); Harmondsworth and Colnbrook IRCs at Heathrow; Brook House and Tinsley House IRCs at Gatwick; Derwentside IRC in County Durham; Yarl’s Wood IRC in Bedfordshire and Dungavel House IRC in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
As of 24 April, the Home Office has the capacity to detain around 2,200 people in IRCs, including those liable for removal to Rwanda.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals seeking asylum have been detained pending deportation to Rwanda.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication.
Information about those detained who are liable to be removed to Rwanda is not available in our published data
Published data on detentions and returns is available at the following link Migration statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much was spent on sending an asylum seeker to Rwanda on 30 April 2024.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Individuals who have no right to remain in the UK legally are being offered voluntary relocation to Rwanda under a new agreement with the Government of Rwanda. This will relocate individuals who have no right to work, rent or remain in the UK to relocate to Rwanda and allow them to build safe and prosperous lives there.
Individuals will receive £3,000 to support their relocation, paid to them on a card that can only be used in Rwanda.
This builds on our already widely used voluntary returns scheme, which saw more than 19,000 people return to their country-of-origin last year. We can also now facilitate relocation to Rwanda, providing an alternative for those whose country of origin is unsafe or those who would prefer not to return, but have no right to remain in the UK.
Under this Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Rwanda, individuals relocated voluntarily will have the same package of support for up to five years and access to integration programmes, so that they can study, undertake training, and work. Actual spend of the policy will be reported as part of the annual Home Office Reports and Accounts in the usual way.
It would not be appropriate to provide individual details of voluntary relocations that the Home Office has helped facilitate.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what airline took an asylum seeker to Rwanda on 30 April 2024.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Individuals who have no right to remain in the UK legally are being offered voluntary relocation to Rwanda under a new agreement with the Government of Rwanda. This will relocate individuals who have no right to work, rent or remain in the UK to relocate to Rwanda and allow them to build safe and prosperous lives there.
Individuals will receive £3,000 to support their relocation, paid to them on a card that can only be used in Rwanda.
This builds on our already widely used voluntary returns scheme, which saw more than 19,000 people return to their country-of-origin last year. We can also now facilitate relocation to Rwanda, providing an alternative for those whose country of origin is unsafe or those who would prefer not to return, but have no right to remain in the UK.
Under this Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Rwanda, individuals relocated voluntarily will have the same package of support for up to five years and access to integration programmes, so that they can study, undertake training, and work. Actual spend of the policy will be reported as part of the annual Home Office Reports and Accounts in the usual way.
It would not be appropriate to provide individual details of voluntary relocations that the Home Office has helped facilitate.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will take steps to donate confiscated (a) vessels and (b) motors held at the Border Force storage facility in Dover to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ HL3009 on 18 March 2024
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how he measuring is the level of synthetic drugs being (a) manufactured in the UK and (b) trafficked into the UK.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling illicit drugs, including potent synthetic opioids, is a priority for the Government and through our 10 year drugs strategy ‘From Harm to Hope’ we are taking action to tackle drug supply and reduce demand.
UK agencies are highly alert to the threat from synthetic drugs, including synthetic opioids like fentanyl and nitazenes, as well as synthetic cannabinoids and benzodiazepines. The Home Office, Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), National Crime Agency (NCA), Border Force and the National Police Chiefs Council are working with local partners to proactively monitor and respond to synthetic opioid related deaths, tracking drug related deaths and other intelligence to ensure a quick response.
We assess that the scale of trafficking of synthetic opioids into the UK remains low. However, nitazenes, a type of synthetic opioid, have been linked to more than 100 deaths in the UK during the last year. The NCA assess that these substances are manufactured in illicit labs in China and have no evidence to suggest they are manufactured in the UK.
Through the cross-Government Synthetic Opioids Taskforce we are taking action and are working to enhance our drug harms surveillance and early warning system to provide monitoring information on the presence and impact of synthetic opioids or other drug threats to inform our response. It will also include data on lab-tested police seizures as well as state-of-the-art monitoring for the presence of synthetic drugs by analysing wastewater.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he is investing in research into drug testing methodology to identify the presence of synthetic drugs.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling illicit drugs, including potent synthetic opioids, is a priority for the Government and through our 10-year drugs strategy ‘From Harm to Hope’ we are taking action to tackle drug supply and reduce demand.
Through the cross-Government Synthetic Opioids Taskforce, we are working to enhance our drug harms surveillance and early warning system to provide monitoring information on the presence and impact of synthetic opioids or other drug threats to inform our response. This will also include data on detections from drug-checking services as well as state-of-the-art monitoring for the presence of synthetic drugs by analysing wastewater.
The Home Office continues to investigate the market for new technologies that can be used to identify the presence of synthetic drugs.
Ministers are clear that drug testing services must not condone drug use and should only be delivered where licensed and operated responsibly, in line with Government policy to ensure that they discourage drug use and signpost potential users to treatment and support.