Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many third country asylum applications have been handled in Northern Ireland in each of the last 5 calendar years, following the applicants having been in the UK for 6 months and 1 day.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office and, therefore, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The safety and security of the United Kingdom is this government’s top priority. We work closely with the Irish government to stop illegal migrants and foreign national offenders exploiting the Common Travel Area.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what powers UK Border Force has to stop, board and inspect vehicles, public transport, buses and boats for immigration purposes.
Answered by Mike Tapp
Border Force officers have a range of powers to stop, board, examine and search vehicles and vessels for immigration purposes.
Under Schedule 2 to the Immigration Act 1971, immigration officers may board ships and aircraft in connection with the exercise of their immigration functions. They may also search vehicles or containers that have been brought to, or are to be brought to, the United Kingdom by ship, aircraft or train for the purpose of establishing whether there are persons whom they may wish to examine under the Act. These examination powers apply in respect of passengers travelling by private vehicle, public transport, coach, bus, rail, air and maritime services.
In the maritime environment, the Immigration Act 2016 included Part 3A and Schedule 4A, expanding the Immigration Act 1971 to include provide powers, in specified circumstances and where relevant immigration offences are suspected, to stop, board, divert and detain vessels for the purpose of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting such offences.
The exercise of all Border Force powers is subject to the relevant statutory framework and operational guidance.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times UK Border Force has exercised powers to stop, board and inspect vehicles, public transport, buses and boats for immigration purposes in each of the last five calendar years.
Answered by Mike Tapp
The Home Office does not hold centrally collated data on the number of occasions Border Force has exercised powers to stop, board and inspect vehicles, public transport, buses and boats for immigration purposes in each of the last five calendar years.
Border Force officers have powers under immigration legislation to stop, board, examine and search vehicles and vessels for immigration purposes. These powers are exercised routinely as part of day-to-day border operations and are not routinely recorded or centrally collated in a way that would enable the Department to provide the figures requested.
While Border Force maintains operational records relating to passengers and immigration checks, it does not hold data on the number of vehicles or vessels examinations undertaken.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether any guidance exists for each Constabulary on the number of candidates they recommend to the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme in any given year to assist with professional development and succession in leadership.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many candidates from Police Service Northern Ireland successfully completed the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme since 2023.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many candidates from Police Service Northern Ireland have attended the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme since 2023.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which police constabulary referred the (a) highest and (b) lowest number of candidates across the UK to the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme since 2023.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications were (a) received, (b) granted and (c) rejected for (i) asylum, (ii) Spousal Visas and (iii) Skilled Worker Visas in the last financial year.
Answered by Seema Malhotra
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa type, including Partner and Skilled Worker visas, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D01’ whilst data on the outcomes of visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the ‘detailed entry clearance dataset’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Data is from January 2005 up to the end of March 2025.
The Home Office also publishes data on the number of people claiming asylum and the number of initial decisions is published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D02 of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending March 2025.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plans to take to improve the asylum system.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
I refer the Hon Member to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill introduced to Parliament on 30 January (Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill 2025 - GOV.UK.) and the Immigration White Paper published on 12 May (Restoring control over the immigration system: white paper - GOV.UK), both of which will drive forward the Government’s objectives to restore order to the asylum system, and cut costs it imposes on the taxpayer.