Oral Answers to Questions

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Tony Vaughan (Folkestone and Hythe) (Lab)]

T3.   The National Audit Office recently raised serious concerns about the previous Government’s decision to buy poor-quality, expensive and contaminated asylum accommodation at Northeye. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that asylum accommodation is fit for purpose and represents value for money?

[The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Dame Angela Eagle)]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue. What the National Audit Office found in its report was not only an appalling process of decision making by members of the previous Government, but a grotesque waste of £15 million of taxpayers’ money—just like the waste of £60 million at RAF Scampton. In contrast, the new Government are determined to cut asylum accommodation costs by stepping up decision making, reducing the backlog—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Gregory Stafford.

[Dame Angela Eagle]

—and increasing returns.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. It is the Back Benchers who do not get in.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth) (Reform)]

I am sure that the Home Secretary would agree that good government is transparent government. I have been told by her Department, in response to a written parliamentary question, that the number of crimes committed by illegal migrants is not available through published statistics. I am sure that the Home Office does hold the data, so will the Minister commit to publishing it in full?

[Dame Angela Eagle]

There will be a huge drop of immigration-related national statistics at the end of the week.

[Jake Richards (Rother Valley) (Lab)]

T5. Two brave women from Maltby came to my most recent surgery. Each told me about the horrific physical and emotional abuse that they had suffered at the hands of their ex-partners. They also told me that the police had ignored non-molestation orders, which—as I know from my professional experience before I was called to the Bar—is far from uncommon. What steps will the Government take to ensure that any relevant court orders are given due force?

[Marie Goldman (Chelmsford) (LD)]

Chelmsford’s allocation of dispersal accommodation for asylum seekers is more than 120 beds, but the number found to date is about a tenth of that number owing to the high demand for and high cost of private rented accommodation in the district. What extra support can the Minister offer councils facing the increasing cost of housing asylum seekers?

[Dame Angela Eagle]

We are trying to co-operate much more with local authorities so that we can deal with these issues, but ultimately the way to deal with them is to get the backlog down and get people out of high-price accommodation so that we can integrate them if they are granted asylum.

[Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

T7. I have met a number of British-Palestinian families who are trying to reunite with their families in Gaza. Part of the entry clearance process requires the undertaking of biometrics. There is no visa centre in Gaza, and they are unable to leave owing to the closure of the Rafah crossing. Will the Home Secretary, or the Minister, please indicate whether they are willing to introduce a temporary waiver for biometrics so that people can complete the entry clearance process?