Found: Lord Hanson of Flint Minister of State 2 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DF www.gov.uk

Found: of Citizenship Orders Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill: Correspondence from Lord Hanson of Flint

Found: re: UK-EU Summit, 24 June 2026 Written Ministerial Statement and accompanying letter from Lord Hanson of Flint

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 1 July (HL1346), when an application for a project licence under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 was last rejected on the grounds that it would involve unacceptable levels of harm beyond the lawful category of severe.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

Under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, project licences cannot authorise procedures that may cause the animal severe pain, suffering or distress that is likely to be long-lasting and cannot be alleviated. The earliest project licence application data currently available to the Home Office Regulator on the current e-licensing system dates from late 2021. No project licences have been refused on the grounds that a proposal would involve unacceptable levels of harm beyond the lawful category of severe since that date.

The number of formal refusals is not, however, a meaningful indicator of regulatory rigour. All applications go through multiple review stages before reaching the Home Office Regulator, and guidance is available to assist applicants in preparing submissions that meet all legal requirements. Applicants may also revise or withdraw an application in response to feedback. Only applications that fully meet the requirements of the legislation may be considered for licensing authorisation.

Home Office Inspectors assess the likely pain, suffering, distress and lasting harm that animals may experience using the information provided in project licence applications. They consider factors including the nature, severity, duration and frequency of adverse effects, the number and proportion of animals likely to be affected, and the measures proposed to minimise those harms.

Each planned procedure, or series of procedures, is assigned a prospective severity classification (non-recovery, mild, moderate or severe) which reflects the greatest level of pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm likely to be experienced by any animal after all appropriate refinement measures have been applied. As part of the statutory harm-benefit analysis, a Home Office Inspector considers the expected harms and the anticipated benefits of the programme of work. A licence will not be granted unless the Inspector is satisfied that the likely harms are justified by the expected benefits, and that the requirements of the 3Rs — Replacement, Reduction and Refinement — have been met.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 1 July (HL1346), how the level of pain expected to be experienced by animals is measured within the harm-benefit analysis.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

Under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, project licences cannot authorise procedures that may cause the animal severe pain, suffering or distress that is likely to be long-lasting and cannot be alleviated. The earliest project licence application data currently available to the Home Office Regulator on the current e-licensing system dates from late 2021. No project licences have been refused on the grounds that a proposal would involve unacceptable levels of harm beyond the lawful category of severe since that date.

The number of formal refusals is not, however, a meaningful indicator of regulatory rigour. All applications go through multiple review stages before reaching the Home Office Regulator, and guidance is available to assist applicants in preparing submissions that meet all legal requirements. Applicants may also revise or withdraw an application in response to feedback. Only applications that fully meet the requirements of the legislation may be considered for licensing authorisation.

Home Office Inspectors assess the likely pain, suffering, distress and lasting harm that animals may experience using the information provided in project licence applications. They consider factors including the nature, severity, duration and frequency of adverse effects, the number and proportion of animals likely to be affected, and the measures proposed to minimise those harms.

Each planned procedure, or series of procedures, is assigned a prospective severity classification (non-recovery, mild, moderate or severe) which reflects the greatest level of pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm likely to be experienced by any animal after all appropriate refinement measures have been applied. As part of the statutory harm-benefit analysis, a Home Office Inspector considers the expected harms and the anticipated benefits of the programme of work. A licence will not be granted unless the Inspector is satisfied that the likely harms are justified by the expected benefits, and that the requirements of the 3Rs — Replacement, Reduction and Refinement — have been met.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Hanson of Flint to the first Oral Question on 9 July, what assessment they have made of the impact of the Home Secretary’s proposed policy change to extend the right to acquire indefinite leave to remain and citizenship to 10 years on the number of people who will gain British citizenship in the next decade.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The consultation for the earned settlement model, as proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, was open to the public between 20 November 2025 and 12 February 2026.

We received over 200,000 responses and are now carefully considering the feedback received, as we develop the final model. As no final decisions have been made, I can give no further detail at this time.

The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 25 June (HL859), whether information available to them enables them to determine whether a person claiming asylum in Northern Ireland has previously claimed asylum in Ireland; and, if so, what specific information-sharing mechanism or database provides that information.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

We do not routinely share asylum information with Ireland, but as per the commitment made at the 2026 UK-Ireland Summit, between the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach, the UK and Ireland continue to work together, which includes expanding immigration data sharing and will include asylum seekers.

All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to establish their identity and to link it to their biometric details for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks - including war crimes, crimes against humanity and terrorism.

These checks are critical to the delivery of a safe and secure immigration system. These system and security database checks are completed during the asylum screening process and before a decision is made.

Found: the Home Department Dan Jarvis MBE MP Minister of State Minister for Security The Rt Hon Lord Hanson of Flint

Found: the Home Department Dan Jarvis MBE MP Minister of State Minister for Security The Rt Hon Lord Hanson of Flint

Found: DBE MP, Minister of State See entry under Cabinet Office The Rt Hon The Lord Hanson of Flint