Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether, before selecting hotels as accommodation for asylum seekers, it is their policy to consult the chief executives and leaders of affected local authorities.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government inherited an asylum system under exceptional strain, with tens of thousands of people stuck in limbo without any prospect of having their claims processed. At their peak use under the previous Government, in the autumn of 2023, more than 400 asylum hotels were being leased by the Home Office, at a cost of almost £9 million a day.
Inevitably, due to the size of the backlog we inherited, the Government has been forced to continue with the use of hotels for the time being. It remains our absolute commitment to end the use of hotels over time, as part of our reduction in overall asylum accommodation costs.
When a hotel has been identified for use as contingency accommodation, Home Office officials will write to the local authority Chief Executive and the constituency MP to inform them of plans to accommodate asylum seekers there.
The Home Office continues to work closely with local authorities to manage all the pressures arising from the provision of asylum accommodation including the impact on wider local authority obligations and plans.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend the Prevent programme to continue to fund Prevent education officers.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office will continue to provide dedicated Prevent funding to 27 local authorities considered to face the highest threat from terrorism to help them to go above and beyond the requirements of the statutory Prevent duty. This funding can be used by local authorities to fund dedicated Prevent posts, including Prevent Education Officers.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to consult local authorities before Government contractors decide to use hotels in those respective areas for the purpose of housing asylum seekers.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
In ensuring that views of key external stakeholders are sought and partners engaged with, the Home Office has dedicated Regional Engagement Leads who liaise directly with local authorities or via Regional Strategic Migration Partnerships (SMP). SMPs are Local Government led partnerships funded by, but independent of, the Home Office, whose role is to coordinate and support delivery of national programmes in asylum and refugee schemes as well as agreed regional and devolved migration priorities.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to allowing local authorities to veto the use of hotels for the purpose of housing asylum seekers in their respective areas.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
In ensuring that views of key external stakeholders are sought and partners engaged with, the Home Office has dedicated Regional Engagement Leads who liaise directly with local authorities or via Regional Strategic Migration Partnerships (SMP). SMPs are Local Government led partnerships funded by, but independent of, the Home Office, whose role is to coordinate and support delivery of national programmes in asylum and refugee schemes as well as agreed regional and devolved migration priorities.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are taking steps to ensure that the freedom to pray silently will be upheld when section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023 comes into effect.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Section 9 of the Public Order Act 2023 does not make any reference to silent prayer.
Section 9 makes it a criminal offence for a person who is within a Safe Access Zone to do any act with the intent of, or reckless as to whether it has the effect of, influencing any person’s decision to access, provide or facilitate the provision of abortion services, obstructing or impeding any person accessing, providing, or facilitating the provision of abortion services, or causing harassment, alarm or distress to any person in connection with a decision to access, provide, or facilitate the provision of abortion services.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the merits of establishing a specific policing unit to support local councillors who are experiencing threats and intimidation.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The safety of our elected representatives is essential to the security of our country. All elected representatives should be able to participate fully in our democracy, without fear for their safety and security. Instances of abuse, intimidation and criminal offences are unacceptable, and that is why the Government will take every possible step to safeguard the people, processes, and institutions upon which our democracy relies.
On 28th February the Prime Minister announced the Government was investing an additional £31 million in funding to protect the democratic process and our elected representatives. Through this funding we are enhancing police capabilities, increasing private sector security provision for those facing a higher risk, and expanding cyber security advice to elected representatives.
The investment also enables the expansion of the Operation BRIDGER network, which already provides support to MPs, so that all elected representatives and candidates are given a dedicated, police contact to liaise with on security matters, where needed. Through this network elected representatives – including local councillors - will have access to security briefings from their local force.
The funding is accompanied by a new Defending Democracy Policing Protocol, agreed with police to enhance the safety of elected representatives, and protect the UK’s democratic process from disruption. Further information about the Protocol is available on GOV.UK.
The Defending Democracy Taskforce will continue to review the effectiveness of arrangements for protective security of elected representatives.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arrived in England in each month in 2022.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). These statistics can be found at Asylum and resettlement datasets:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets
UASC application data is located within table ASY_D0.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children have been identified in adult asylum hotels run by the Home Office in the last year, following an initial incorrect assessment.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). These statistics can be found at Asylum and resettlement datasets:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets
UASC application data is located within table ASY_D0.
The Home Office does not hold data for the number of UASC identified in adult hotel accommodation in a reportable format and it would require a manual search of records which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what analysis they have done to ascertain whether the rate paid to councils to support care leavers who were formerly unaccompanied-asylum seeking children is sufficient to cover the costs of this support.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
All local authorities receive funding via the Local Government Finance Settlement or finance arrangements which apply to the Devolved Administrations. The final Local Government Finance Settlement for 2023/24 makes available up to £59.7 billion for local government in England, an increase in Core Spending Power of up to £5.1 billion or 9.4% in cash terms on 2022/23. The majority of the funding is un-ringfenced in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities and the services they provide.
Additionally, the Home Office provides a financial contribution to the costs incurred by local government supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) and former UASC care leavers.
Any local authority receiving a child transferred under the scheme receives a funding contribution of £114 or £143 per child per night, dependent on the number of children they accommodate.
In addition, the government increased the contribution for all former UASC care leavers from £240 per person per week to £270 per person per week. These changes follow a significant uplift in funding in June 2020.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the policy of supporting a locally-driven response to demonstrations at abortion clinics; and whether they still consider that local authorities have sufficient powers to address any potential challenges arising in relation to such demonstrations.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Government is clear that it is unacceptable that patients seeking healthcare advice or staff working in healthcare facilities should feel intimidated or harassed. Since the 2018 review, the Government has continued to keep the matter of abortion-related protest outside clinics under review and continues to believe that a locally-driven response to demonstrations outside abortion clinics in England and Wales is proportionate.
The existing laws give the police and local authorities the powers they need to deal with harmful protests, and the Government expects the police and local authorities to use their existing powers appropriately.