Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have had, or are currently holding, discussions with allies about reviewing the terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Government keeps all aspects of the asylum and immigration system under review, and set out its plans for reform of that system in the Immigration White paper, published in May 2025.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the uptake to date of funding under the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme during this financial year, and what level of funding they expect to provide in financial year 2026/27.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has allocated up to £23 million to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme in 2025/26. This year’s scheme will end on 31 March 2026 or when the budget is exhausted, whichever is the sooner. Funding after March 2026 will be considered as we work through the output of the Spending Review and Departmental business planning process.
In order to help applicants plan, we publish an online tracker showing remaining funding. This indicates remaining budget and is not an underspend. We typically see an upsurge in claims towards the end of the financial year. £7,774,560 worth of funding has been used to date. The tracker can be found at https://listed-places-of-worship-grant.dcms.gov.uk/.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the unemployment rate in each month of this year, in particular those months in which unemployment rose.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The unemployment rate in May-Jul 2025 was 4.7%pts. The unemployment rate has increased by 0.2%pts since the start of the year. Over this period, the employment rate increased by 0.2% to 75.2% and the inactivity rate fell by 0.3%pts to 21.1%.
Increases in the unemployment rate have been driven by people leaving inactivity and reengaging the labour market. This shift in labour market participation, is exactly what our Get Britian Working strategy seeks to address.
Backed by £240m in Autumn 2024 Budget, our Get Britain Working strategy sets out the biggest reforms to employment support in a generation, bringing together skills and health to get more people into work and to get on in work.
Aimed at tackling rising levels of health-related economic inactivity and moving towards an 80% employment rate ambition; the Get Britain Working strategy has three main workstreams – Jobs and Careers Service, Pathways to Work, and young people. We’ve already made rapid progress, including:
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the introduction of a cap of £25,000 on the amount of VAT that can be claimed back under the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the importance of supporting churches and other listed places of worship. That is why the decision was made to extend the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme until 31 March 2026, with a budget of £23m.
Against a tough fiscal picture, the difficult decision was taken by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to implement an annual limit of £25,000 per individual place of worship for the coming year. The changes to the scheme were necessary given the significant pressures on other parts of the heritage and cultural sectors.
Based on DCMS’s analysis of previous data, 94% of applications will be unaffected by the change, as most claims are under £5,000.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much annually managed expenditure the Treasury made available to the Northern Ireland Executive in each of the past three financial years for the purpose of funding the non-domestic renewable heating initiative; and how much was actually drawn down in each of those years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Programmes are funded by the UK Government in Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) if they are demand-led and volatile in a way that could not adequately be controlled by the devolved governments. Where a devolved government offers broadly similar terms for an AME programme, the UK Government will fund the cost of this programme. Where a devolved government wishes to offer more generous terms for an AME programme, then the excess over that implied by adopting broadly similar terms for that programme (and therefore broadly comparable costs) must be met by the devolved government.
The Northern Ireland Executive received the following AME funding for the non-domestic renewable heating initiative; £27.97m in 2023-24, £33.47m in 2024-25, and £33.47m in 2025-26.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost per day of accommodating asylum seekers.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Wider asylum accommodation costs other than hotels are not routinely published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 17 July (HL9083), whether they will now answer the question put; namely what is the current daily cost of providing accommodation for asylum seekers other than in hotels; and how this compares with the daily cost in 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what legal costs they have incurred in dealing with claims for asylum, including appeals, launched by those arriving in the United Kingdom through irregular and illegal means in the past three years.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office and, therefore, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what grants they have given to non-government organisations and other groups assisting those seeking asylum in the United Kingdom during the past three years, and to which organisations and groups.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The requested information could only be collated and verified through manual checks by all grant making policy teams within the Home Office, something that could only be done at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many additional units of accommodation have been required to meet the increase in the population of the United Kingdom in the last five financial years.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Estimates vary as to the scale of delivery that is required to meet housing need, however, there is a broad consensus that to address the housing emergency we must deliver well above projections of population growth to deal with decades of undersupply. Increasing housing supply beyond current levels is integral to providing for population growth, moderating the rate of house price growth, and tackling affordability pressures. That is why we have committed to delivering 1.5m homes over this parliament.