Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the daily cost per person will be if 504 asylum seekers are accommodated on the Bibby Stockholm barge.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The capacity of the Bibby Stockholm is around 500 people. The number of asylum seekers onboard the vessel at any one time is likely to vary due to a number of factors.
Numbers will increase in a phased approach as part of a carefully structured plan. We are conscious of the need to manage arrivals in a way that local services can support.
Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential. Therefore, the Home Office does not publish this information. However, total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at: Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk).
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people who arrived in the UK claiming to be unaccompanied children seeking asylum, and who underwent a Merton compliant age assessment and were determined as a child, were then found to be an adult, for each year since 2016; and what percentage of the number of Merton compliant age assessment tests this constituted, broken down by year since 2016.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum and resettlement in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ on gov.uk. Data on Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and age disputes are published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D05 of the ‘Asylum and Resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each of the workbooks. The latest data relates to Q3 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’ on gov.uk.
Data on age disputes includes age disputes that may have been resolved by means other than following a Merton compliant age assessment such as: receipt of credible and clear documentary evidence of age; a judicial finding on age; following a determination by two Home Office officers that the person’s physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests they are significantly over the age of 18; or, where the reasons for raising an age dispute no longer apply.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 23 November (HL192), of those unaccompanied children seeking asylum who are placed in hotels awaiting placement with a local authority who either have documents or do not require an age assessment, (1) how, and (2) when, their age is entered onto the operational databases referred to; when it is done so; and by whom its quality is assured.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Many of those arriving in the UK who claim to be children, often do not have clear evidence such as an original passport or identity document to back this up.
In the absence of documentary evidence, Home Office officials will treat a claimant as an adult if their physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests that they are significantly over 18 years of age, in-line with the Home Office’s published age assessment policy. This is carried out by two Home Office officials who independently assess whether a claimant is an adult.
The age provided through evidence or through the assessment carried out upon the person’s entry to the UK is entered into Home Office systems within 24 hours of their arrival in the UK.
A sample of data is quality assured as standard practice.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 23 November (HL192), of those unaccompanied children seeking asylum over the last two years who have had to be placed in a hotel whilst awaiting to be placed with a local authority, what percentage either (1) had documents, or (2) did not require an age assessment.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Many of those arriving in the UK who claim to be children, often do not have clear evidence such as an original passport or identity document to back this up.
In the absence of documentary evidence, Home Office officials will treat a claimant as an adult if their physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests that they are significantly over 18 years of age, in-line with the Home Office’s published age assessment policy. This is carried out by two Home Office officials who independently assess whether a claimant is an adult.
The age provided through evidence or through the assessment carried out upon the person’s entry to the UK is entered into Home Office systems within 24 hours of their arrival in the UK.
A sample of data is quality assured as standard practice.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Supreme Court judgment on the use of Rwanda for extradition of those seeking asylum who arrive to the UK by irregular routes, what assessment if any they have made of each of the countries listed in Schedule 1 to the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (Countries or territories to which a person may be removed) to determine if they have any similar features as laid out in the Supreme Court's judgment and therefore would make them illegal to send asylum seekers too.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The list of countries in Schedule 1 of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 is an amalgamation of the lists of safe counties currently set out in section 94(4) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and paragraph 2 of Schedule 3 to the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 with the addition of the Republic of Rwanda and the exclusion of Ukraine. The Home Office regularly reviews country situations and the countries listed have been found to be safe.
The Government is considering the outcome of the Supreme Court’s judgment on the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) with Rwanda and its application to the Illegal Migration Act, including the Schedule 1 list. If we were to seek to remove a third country national to any of the countries listed under Schedule 1, they would have the opportunity to raise if they would have a risk of serious and irreversible harm if removed to that country. An individual would not be removed to that country if it was found that there was such a risk.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied children seeking asylum who have been placed in hotels awaiting placement to a local authority have gone missing for more than a week in the last six months; and of those, how many are still missing.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many unaccompanied children seeking asylum are being accommodated in hotels before they are placed with a local authority.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 26 September (HL10118), whether the live operational databases referred to in that answer have a field for inputting the child's age; and if so, when the age is initially entered, how the age is initially determined, and how, when, and by whom, it is quality assured.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The majority of those arriving in the UK illegally do not have valid documentary evidence of their age and some may misrepresent their age whether intentionally or not. There are clear safeguarding issues which arise if a child is inadvertently treated as an adult, and equally if an adult is wrongly accepted as a child and placed in accommodation with younger children to whom they could present a risk.
Where a new arrival does not have genuine documentary evidence of their age and their claimed age is doubted, an initial age decision is conducted as a first step to prevent individuals who are clearly an adult or child from being subjected unnecessarily to a more substantive age assessment and ensure that new arrivals are routed into the correct accommodation and processes for assessing their immigration claim. Most of these initial decisions on age are conducted at the Western Jet Foil, Dover on those who arrive via small boat, although the policy applies nationally and across modes to help establish age where new arrivals are first encountered.
The ‘Assessing Age’ guidance details the Home Office’s age assessment policy for immigration purposes. Where doubt remains and an individual cannot be assessed to be significantly over 18, they will be treated as a child for immigration purposes and referred to a local authority for further consideration on their age, usually in the form of a ‘Merton compliant’ age assessment. This typically involves two qualified social workers undertaking a series of interviews with the young person and considering any other information relevant to their age.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total cost per night, including the cost of safeguarding, of placing an unaccompanied child seeking asylum in a hotel while waiting for a local authority placement.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The cost of accommodating unaccompanied asylum seeking children is subject to change depending on the numbers being accommodated. Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information. However, total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people who arrived in the UK by small boats in each of the last three years claimed asylum based on their (1) sexual orientation, or (2) gender identity; and of those, how many have been granted refugee status.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes data on small boat arrivals in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ release. Data on asylum applications from small boat arrivals and initial decisions on these applications can be found in tables Irr_D02 and Irr_D03 respectively of the ‘irregular migration detailed datasets’. Please note that information on the basis of the asylum claim (e.g. sexual orientation or gender identity) is not published.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. The latest data relate to the year ending June 2023.
Additionally, data on asylum claims on the basis of sexual orientation can be found in tables SOC_00, SOC_01 and SOC_02 of the ‘asylum and resettlement datasets’, as part of the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Please note that this data is not broken down by method of arrival to the UK (i.e. small boats). The latest data relate to 2022.