Chris Philp

This Government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with thousands stuck in a backlog without their claims processed. We remain committed to reducing the costs of asylum accommodation, including ending the use of hotels over time, and we will set out further details of our progress towards those objectives in the normal way in due course.

I refer the Right Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 26 November to Question UIN 14746.

Diego Garcia has never been a suitable long-term location for the migrants who have arrived there and this Government has worked hard to find a solution that protects both their welfare and the integrity of British territorial borders.

We have now closed down any risk of opening a new route, with any future arrivals to Diego Garcia to be relocated to St Helena until Mauritius takes responsibility for the island. Following this, we have temporarily relocated a small number of migrants, including children and their families, to the UK due to their acute welfare needs, and the lack of any suitable amenities on the island, including healthcare, to address those needs.

In line with normal practice, we will not comment further on those individual cases.

The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on detected irregular arrivals to the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Quarterly data on detected irregular arrivals by age group is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’. The latest data is up to the end of September 2024, with data up to December 2024 to be published on 27 February 2025.

The Home Office also publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on age disputes raised and resolved is published in table Asy_D05 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to year ending June 2024.

Accurately assessing an individual's age remains an incredibly complex and difficult task, and current methods and procedures for doing so are set out in detail in the Home Office's Assessing Age guidance, which is publicly available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/672e169e4f7608e424ffdab1/Assessing+age.pdf(opens in a new tab).

The effectiveness of these and other potential methods and procedures for age assessment are kept under regular review, and any future changes will be updated in the usual way. On the issue of scientific age assessments, I will write to the Rt Hon Member to address in more detail the question he has raised.

The Government published its response to the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s 5^th Annual Report on 28 November 2024 here: Response to the 2022 annual report on the operation of the terrorism acts by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Government is committed to exploring how it can improve and accelerate processes for identifying individuals of potential security concern, including continuing to improve its facial recognition capabilities.

I refer the Honourable Member to my answer of 25^th November to question UIN 15092.

I remain grateful for the Right Honourable Member’s continued commitment to the successful implementation of the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) approach and I will be happy to provide him with regular updates on its implementation when there is relevant progress to update.

The number of foreign national offenders (FNOs) in prison in England and Wales is published quarterly in table 1_Q_9 of Offender Management Statistics, with the latest data (30 September 2024) available from: prison-population-30-Sept-2024.ods.

Any FNO convicted of a crime who receives a custodial sentence in the UK is referred to the Home Office for deportation consideration following sentencing. We are focussing resources on those cases currently serving custodial sentences and maximising removals directly from prison.

We will pursue deportation action against individuals living in the community rigorously, actively monitoring and managing cases through the legal process and negotiating barriers to removal.

Between 5 July and 28 October 2024, there were 1,520 enforced and voluntary returns of FNOs, this is an increase of 14% compared to 1,330 FNO returns in the same period of 2023. Further information can be found here: Returns from the UK between July and October 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Home Office publishes the quarterly statistics on the returns of FNOs by nationality and year. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending June 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The published statistics refer to enforced returns which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily.

The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and subsistence support whilst their application for asylum is being considered.

Data, published quarterly, on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including hotels, can be found within the Asy_D11 tab for our most recent statistics release. The data can also be broken down by local authority: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).

The Home Office does not publish data on daily numbers or cost of hotels in use. The Government inherited an asylum system which is under exceptional strain, with tens of thousands of cases in the asylum backlog and a range of challenges across the system.

The Home Office published an ad-hoc release containing information about the total number of enforced and voluntary returns from the UK between 5 July and 28 October 2024 and the same period in 2023, on 4 November this year.

The number of returns between July and September 2024 will be published in the Immigration system statistics release on 28 November, with data for the period October to December 2024 published in the release on 27 February 2025. Data in Ret_D01 of the returns detailed tables accompanying the report provide quarterly data broken down by return type (enforced/voluntary/port), nationality and return destination group (Home/EU member state/Other safe country).

The Home Office publishes information about those who by small boat in the Irregular Migration to the UK quarterly release. Quarterly data on enforced and voluntary returns are given by return date in table Irr_02e of the irregular migration to the UK summary tables accompanying the release.

It is a matter for each chief constable to determine how much of the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) approach they wish to adopt.

I know the Rt Hon Member was strongly committed in his past role to the adoption of Right Care, Right Person approach, and I welcome his continued interest in the subject.

Although he will be aware that there is no national implementation schedule for RCRP, and timing is ultimately a matter for each chief constable, it is recognised best practice for the police to work in close consultation with local partners to understand local issues and gaps, to be clear on who will respond to what, and to agree a timeline for implementing the different phases of RCRP in their force area.

The Home Office continues to receive regular updates from police forces across England and Wales on the status of their implementation, and I am pleased to report that work is progressing well across the country.

I refer Hon Gentlemen to the answer I gave him on 21^st October 2024 (UIN 9189).

The Immigration (Age Assessments) Regulations 2024 came into force in January of this year.

We are committed to strengthening our age assessment process.

We are taking a holistic approach to prevent adults claiming to be children or children being wrongly treated as adults – as both present serious safeguarding risks to children.

Final figures for the amount spent on police technology in the 2024 financial year from the £234m announced at the Spring Budget will be available to publish at the end of that financial year.

This Government will continue to invest in improving productivity and efficiency with new technology for policing.

Funding for future financial years will be agreed as part of the ongoing Spending Review.