Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement a scheme similar to the EU entry/exit system for EU nationals travelling to the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK has introduced electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) to enhance our ability to screen travellers upstream, and improve the customer experience. The introduction of the ETA scheme is in line with the approach many of the UK’s international partners have already taken to border security, including the European Union’s forthcoming ETIAS and EES. The UK’s scheme was extended to eligible European nationals on 5 March 2025, and will be a requirement for this cohort for travel from 2 April 2025. In line with international partners, we are building upon our existing ability to track arrivals in and out of the country.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to require travellers to the UK to hold passports that (1) have been issued within ten years of their departure date, and (2) are valid for more than three months after their departure date.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The current requirement for travellers, as set out in the Immigration Rules - Guidance - GOV.UK, is that a person must, on arrival in the United Kingdom or when seeking entry through the Channel Tunnel, produce on request by a Border Force Officer a valid national passport or, subject to eligibility, another document satisfactorily establishing their identity and nationality. The document must be valid for the duration of the proposed travel to the UK.
There are currently no plans to change these requirements.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to implement a scheme similar to the European travel information and authorisation system for travellers to the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK has introduced electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) to enhance our ability to screen travellers upstream, and improve the customer experience. The introduction of the ETA scheme is in line with the approach many of the UK’s international partners have already taken to border security, including the European Union’s forthcoming ETIAS and EES. The UK’s scheme was extended to eligible European nationals on 5 March 2025, and will be a requirement for this cohort for travel from 2 April 2025. In line with international partners, we are building upon our existing ability to track arrivals in and out of the country.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have been resettled under the UK Resettlement Scheme in each of the past four years.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Resettlement schemes play a key role in the global response to humanitarian crises: saving lives and offering stability to refugees most in need of protection. We work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the global refugee agency, to identify those living in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities who would benefit most from resettlement to the UK. Our resettlement schemes are not selective on the basis of employability or integration potential. Apart from the criteria we set for each scheme, we do not seek to influence which cases are referred to us by UNHCR. Our approach is to resettle refugees in line with the global need identified by UNHCR, typically from countries hosting large populations of refugees such as those bordering countries with conflicts, where resettlement may be the only durable solution. This provides refugees with a safe and legal route to the UK.
Data on the number of people resettled through the UK Resettlement scheme is published in the quarterly immigration statistics release. This is viewable on gov.uk.
The table below shows the number of individuals resettled under UKRS. The data is relevant up to December 2024.
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
UK Resettlement Scheme | 1,121 | 887 | 485 | 678 |
It is not possible to disclose staffing numbers relating to UKRS currently due to the operational nature of the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they take to promote the UK Resettlement Scheme to relevant immigrants.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Resettlement schemes play a key role in the global response to humanitarian crises: saving lives and offering stability to refugees most in need of protection. We work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the global refugee agency, to identify those living in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities who would benefit most from resettlement to the UK. Our resettlement schemes are not selective on the basis of employability or integration potential. Apart from the criteria we set for each scheme, we do not seek to influence which cases are referred to us by UNHCR. Our approach is to resettle refugees in line with the global need identified by UNHCR, typically from countries hosting large populations of refugees such as those bordering countries with conflicts, where resettlement may be the only durable solution. This provides refugees with a safe and legal route to the UK.
Data on the number of people resettled through the UK Resettlement scheme is published in the quarterly immigration statistics release. This is viewable on gov.uk.
The table below shows the number of individuals resettled under UKRS. The data is relevant up to December 2024.
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
UK Resettlement Scheme | 1,121 | 887 | 485 | 678 |
It is not possible to disclose staffing numbers relating to UKRS currently due to the operational nature of the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people they employ to administer the UK Resettlement Scheme.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Resettlement schemes play a key role in the global response to humanitarian crises: saving lives and offering stability to refugees most in need of protection. We work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the global refugee agency, to identify those living in formal refugee camps, informal settlements and host communities who would benefit most from resettlement to the UK. Our resettlement schemes are not selective on the basis of employability or integration potential. Apart from the criteria we set for each scheme, we do not seek to influence which cases are referred to us by UNHCR. Our approach is to resettle refugees in line with the global need identified by UNHCR, typically from countries hosting large populations of refugees such as those bordering countries with conflicts, where resettlement may be the only durable solution. This provides refugees with a safe and legal route to the UK.
Data on the number of people resettled through the UK Resettlement scheme is published in the quarterly immigration statistics release. This is viewable on gov.uk.
The table below shows the number of individuals resettled under UKRS. The data is relevant up to December 2024.
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
UK Resettlement Scheme | 1,121 | 887 | 485 | 678 |
It is not possible to disclose staffing numbers relating to UKRS currently due to the operational nature of the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many police officers in England and Wales have been recruited in each of the past five years without proper references being obtained prior to their employment.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government expects all forces to uphold the highest standards in recruitment so that only those fit to serve as police officers are appointed.
All candidates for appointment as a police officer should meet the standards set by the College of Policing. The Home Office does not hold data related to candidate references as this element of the end-to-end recruitment process is managed locally by forces.
The Government has committed to delivering stronger vetting standards, placed on a legislative footing, by the end of the year.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have had their British citizenship revoked in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The British Nationality Act 1981 provides the Secretary of State with powers to deprive a person of citizenship status only under the circumstances set out at sections 40(2) and 40(3) of the Act. Section 40(2) allows the Secretary of State to deprive any person of British citizenship, should they deem it conducive to the public good to do so.
Detail on the numbers of conducive deprivation orders made under Section 40(2) of the 1981 British Nationality Act, are published in the Government Transparency Report: Disruptive and Investigatory Powers. Eight reports have been published to date providing the number of deprivations of citizenship orders made up until the end of 2023 can be found on Gov.UK.
More recent data will be published in future publications in relation to deprivation of British citizenship 40(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
Section 40(3) of the 1981 British Nationality Act, allows for deprivation of citizenship where fraud, false representation or concealment of material facts have been used to obtain British citizenship. Since August 2020 these figures have been published via the Transparency report on asylum data, which can be found on Gov.UK:
For ease, the data below (taken from the Immigration and Protection data: Q3 2024 – GOV.UK report) sets out the number of people deprived of British Citizenship on the grounds of fraud:
Year | Deprivation Orders |
2018 | 50 |
2019 | 82 |
2020 | 43 |
2021 | 273 |
2022 | 308 |
The current published data runs to 2022, more recent data will be published when available.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the framework for granting firearms licences.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 15 January 2025, the Government laid a statutory instrument before Parliament that will increase fees charged by police forces to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications, in line with the Government's manifesto commitment on firearms fees. The fees were last increased in 2015 and they are now considerably below the cost of the service provided. It is essential for both public safety and police efficiency that increased fees are introduced so that service improvements can be made. The new fees will come into effect on 5 February.
The new fees are based on data produced by a review of firearms licensing costs in 31 police forces in January 2023. This data has since been updated to reflect increases in costs since then. The review was discussed at the Firearms Fees Working Group, chaired by the Home Office, which met in 2022 and 2023 with representation from:
· National Police Chiefs' Council
· Association of Police and Crime Commissioners
· Police Scotland
· Scottish Government
· Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
· British Shooting Sports Council
· British Association for Shooting and Conservation
· Gun Trade Association
· National Rifle Association
· Countryside Alliance
· National Gamekeepers Organisation
· Scottish Association for Country Sports.
We keep the framework of firearms licensing controls under constant review as it is important that we maintain strong controls on firearms to safeguard the public.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which bodies they consulted before increasing the fees for licensing firearms.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 15 January 2025, the Government laid a statutory instrument before Parliament that will increase fees charged by police forces to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications, in line with the Government's manifesto commitment on firearms fees. The fees were last increased in 2015 and they are now considerably below the cost of the service provided. It is essential for both public safety and police efficiency that increased fees are introduced so that service improvements can be made. The new fees will come into effect on 5 February.
The new fees are based on data produced by a review of firearms licensing costs in 31 police forces in January 2023. This data has since been updated to reflect increases in costs since then. The review was discussed at the Firearms Fees Working Group, chaired by the Home Office, which met in 2022 and 2023 with representation from:
· National Police Chiefs' Council
· Association of Police and Crime Commissioners
· Police Scotland
· Scottish Government
· Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
· British Shooting Sports Council
· British Association for Shooting and Conservation
· Gun Trade Association
· National Rifle Association
· Countryside Alliance
· National Gamekeepers Organisation
· Scottish Association for Country Sports.
We keep the framework of firearms licensing controls under constant review as it is important that we maintain strong controls on firearms to safeguard the public.