Asylum Claims: Religious Conversion

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

On behalf of the Government Benches, I echo the noble Lord’s comments about his noble friend. He was a good servant to his party, to his constituency and to the country. The recommendations made by that working group have been put into government consideration. I am not involved in that working group and there may not be a working group in existence now. I will check whether other ministerial colleagues are involved and let the noble Lord know in due course.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, can the Minister outline what kind of training the officials have? A number of years ago, a cross-party group of parliamentarians was involved in helping the Home Office officials with changing the training from a general type of test of your knowledge of a religious text, which you may not even have seen, to that which required an analysis of the lived experience. Is that training still happening now with Home Office officials?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

There is full training, not just for those in existing positions. We are now including an extra 1,000 or so individuals to support speeding up the asylum claim decisions, and they are receiving full training. As the noble Baroness will know, there is published guidance around which the criteria for assessment are made, and that guidance is subject to tests from individuals and others.