Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of allowing applications to be dealt with in the UK for asylum applicants who have been granted asylum in another European country.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Where a person already has asylum or subsidiary protection in another European country, the person’s claim will usually be declared inadmissible (meaning that their asylum claim will not be substantively considered in the UK), and they will be removed to that country, if they refused to return voluntarily.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will estimate the number of asylum applicants who have had their initial claims rejected and subsequently made a further application.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Data on initial decisions on asylum claims, including refusals, is published in table Asy_D02 of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending March 2025. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. Data on the number of further submissions is not available from published statistics.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2025 to Question 29448 on Police: Workplace Pensions, what progress has been made on discussions with the Chief Constables in each of the devolved regions on the McCloud Judgement.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Home Office has engaged with the National Police Chiefs’ Council in working to resolve issues related to the McCloud remedy in relation to England and Wales.
As policing is devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the policy and legislative responsibility for the police pension scheme in those regions lies with the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive respectively.
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 is taking to (a) enforce and (b) monitor the application of legislation on the rights of migrants to (i) rent and (ii) otherwise reside in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Right to Rent Scheme (the Scheme) requires landlords and letting agents to check that prospective adult tenants have the relevant permission to access the private rental sector. The Scheme is in force in England only and has not been rolled out to the devolved nations and therefore does not apply to Northern Ireland. The Home Office continues to keep the Scheme’s operation under review.
Immigration Enforcement teams are active in Northern Ireland as they are in the rest of the UK. As part of our Plan for Change, this government is cracking down on criminal industry at every level, including stepping up our visits to businesses where illegal working is taking place, and increasing our enforcement action both against illegal workers and the people who employ them in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will list by (a) age, (b) gender and (c) country the number of asylum claims granted protection to (i) asylum seekers who crossed the English Channel by sea and (ii) all asylum seekers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum, including by nationality, age and sex, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on initial decisions of asylum claims, by the date of the decision, is published in table Asy_D02 of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions detailed datasets’. Data on initial decisions of asylum claims from small boat arrivals, by the date of arrival, is published in table Irr_D03 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed tables’ and by the date of decision in asylum summary tables Asy_02c and Asy_02d.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. 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, how many asylum seekers processed had an application for asylum granted in another country in each of the last five years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
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 asylum seekers subsequently submitted an application for family reunion by (a) age, (b) gender and (c) country of origin in each of the last five years; and how many family members were included in each application.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Home Office publishes statistics relating to family visas in the Immigration system statistics publication. Data on family visas can be found in the Entry clearance visa data tables. Table Vis_D01 relates to applications of entry clearance visas granted for family reasons, by nationality. Data on family reunion grants by age and sex can be found in the family reunion detailed dataset.
The Home Office does not publish statistics regarding sponsorship detail.
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 merits of the further submissions criteria in the asylum system.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All Further submissions must be considered in line with the UK’s obligations to assess whether the additional evidence means that an individual requires protection.
We aim to deal with further submission claims quickly so that there is no incentive to lodge spurious claims to frustrate removal.
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 outstanding calculations remain for retired police officer pensions arising from the McCloud Judgement within each police force in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Calculations for the police pension scheme, including those related to the McCloud remedy, are produced for each scheme member by the relevant scheme administrator.
While the Home Office has responsibility for overarching policy and legislative changes to the police pension regulations in England & Wales, the police pension scheme is locally administered by individual police forces. The devolved governments have overarching policy and legislative responsibility in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
It is for each Chief Constable, in their role as scheme manager for their force, to determine their administrative timetable.
The Home Office is actively collaborating with policing to support the effective implementation of the McCloud remedy for all affected individuals.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to provide British citizenship to the children of British National (Overseas) passport holders from Hong Kong that are in the UK.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
British National (Overseas) status holders who are on the BN(O) route in the
UK may apply for British citizenship after 5 years’ qualifying residence, and being free from immigration time restrictions for a further year.
Their children who have come to the UK as their dependants can apply when they meet the requirements.
Children born to BN(O)s in the UK will be able to apply for registration as a British citizen once their parent becomes settled.