Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many refugees are currently housed in social housing in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Information related to the type and location of accommodation used by individuals who have been granted refugee status is not routinely collated or published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the use of asylum accommodation.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
When this Government came to office, we inherited a system where hotels were one of the primary means of providing asylum accommodation – with more than 400 in use in Autumn 2023 at a cost of almost £9 million per day – and where a 70 per cent collapse in asylum decision-making in the last months of the previous administration had driven that pressure up further.
We have taken rapid action to address that chaos, in particular by speeding up the volume of asylum decision-making so that fewer people are stuck in limbo, dependent on support from the state, and so that more failed asylum-seekers can be removed from the UK, along with foreign national offenders and others with no right to be in our country.
The number of hotels in use is now around half the peak reached under the previous Government, and we will take further action over the rest of this Parliament to end the use of asylum hotels entirely.
To support that goal, as allocated as part of the Spending Review, the Government will be investing £500 million in a new, more sustainable accommodation model, developed in consultation with local authorities. This funding will be delivered by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in partnership with the Home Office and local councils, in order to deliver better outcomes for communities and taxpayers.
In particular, this fund will support local authorities to make available basic alternative accommodation so that it can be used on a temporary basis to house asylum seekers waiting for their cases to be processed. In the longer term, our ambition is that this investment will leave a lasting legacy of housing for local communities and reduce pressure on local housing markets.
MHCLG and the Home Office are committed to continue working closely with devolved governments and local government to co-design this new model, building on the work undertaken to date. We will be writing to local authorities shortly to update them on this new model.
This new funding will complement ongoing Home Office reforms to the asylum accommodation estate, including pilot schemes to repurpose derelict buildings and to develop other community-led alternatives to the use of hotels. These reforms will also go hand-in-hand with the wider reforms set out in the Immigration White Paper to reduce inflow to the asylum system.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of illegal immigrants that French authorities have prevented from travelling to the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Our work with the French authorities is estimated to have prevented over 12,000 crossing attempts so far this year. Data on small boat activity in the English Channel, including preventions, is published weekly on .GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce illegal immigration.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is pursuing a comprehensive plan to tackle illegal immigration, through targeted enforcement against the small boat gangs, stronger action alongside our international partners to prevent Channel crossings, increasing the removal of people with no right to be in the UK, cracking down further on illegal working, and continuing our efforts to clear the asylum backlog and end the use of hotels by the end of this Parliament.
All of this work will be underpinned by the agreement we are negotiating with our overseas counterparts, and by the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill that is currently proceeding through Parliament.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they propose to prevent migrants crossing the English Channel on small boats.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is pursing a strategic shift in Border Security, focusing on long-term systemic improvements, smarter, intelligence-led interventions and stronger partnerships across agencies and with countries upstream to target the criminal gangs behind small boat crossings.
The Border Security Command, created in July 2024, and is leading the national response to prevent small boats crossing the English Channel. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will give it statutory authority to coordinate across government and law enforcement.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will also enhance powers for the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement, and police, enable earlier intervention in smuggling operations and improve the ability to detect, prevent, and prosecute smugglers.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the number of illegal immigrants in the UK has increased or decreased since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
By its very nature, it is not possible to know the exact size of the illegal migrant population in the UK, and so the Home Office under successive governments has not been able to publish any official estimates of that population.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many hotels are being used to accommodate migrants; how many migrants are being housed in hotels across the United Kingdom; and whether those numbers have increased or decreased since July 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
According to the latest official data, published on 22 May 2025, there were 32,345 individuals staying in hotel accommodation as of 31 March 2025.
The current number of hotels in use is lower than it was at the time of the election, and significantly lower than the peak of 400 in use in autumn 2023.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce knife crime among young people.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government's Safer Streets mission and we are taking a range of steps to realise this ambition and keep young people safe.
We have already implemented the ban on zombie-style knives and zombie-style machetes approved by Parliament in April. The ban came in to force on 24 September 2024 and it is now illegal to sell or own these weapons. We are now going further, and on 13 November we launched a consultation on a ban of ninja swords, which has recently concluded.
We also know that more needs to be done to tackle the sale of knives online which is why last October, the Home Secretary commissioned Commander Stephen Clayman, as the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for knife crime, to carry out a full review into the online sale and delivery of knives. The report was received at the end of January and will be published imminently, but as a first step the Home Secretary has announced that the Government intends to strengthen age verification controls and checks for all online sellers of knives at the point of purchase and on delivery, to prevent lethal blades from ending up in the wrong hands.
We have set up a Knife-Enabled Robbery Taskforce, which brings together Ministers, Chief Constables and others working across criminal justice to take immediate action to tackle the fastest rising type of knife crime.
And finally, we have also created a new Young Futures programme, which will include the establishment of Young Futures Prevention Partnerships across England and Wales, bringing partners together to intervene earlier to stop young people being drawn into crime. It is vital we have a system that can identify and support those young people who need it most.
These are just some of the first steps we are taking to tackle the scourge of serious youth violence on our streets.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to reopen hotels to house migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The accommodation estate is under constant review, as the Home Office continues to identify a range of options to minimise the use of hotels and ensure better use of public money, whilst maintaining sufficient accommodation to meet demand.
Asked by: Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many migrants have entered the UK in small boats since the general election; and how many entered the UK in small boats in the five months up to the general election.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
From 5 July 2024 until 17 October 2024, a total of 13,983 migrants arrived in the UK having crossed the Channel in small boats. Between 5 February 2024 (five months before the election) and 4 July, the total was 12,239.
It has been the normal pattern since the start of the small boat crossing in 2018 for arrivals in the summer months to exceed those in the earlier part of the year.
The table below provides the equivalent figures for the same time periods in prior years.
Year | Arrivals 5 Feb – 4 July | Arrivals 5 July – 17 October |
2023 | 10,035 | 14,683 |
2022 | 11,561 | 24,199 |
2021 | 6,370 | 12,686 |
2020 | 2,399 | 4,802 |
2019 | 547 | 784 |
2018 | 4 | 17 |