Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they provide WiFi access within asylum seekers' lodgings to enable them to communicate with family members.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The provision of Wi-Fi is not a contractual requirement across the asylum accommodation estate.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to review the efficacy of the Home Office.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The efficacy of the Home Office is regularly assured through a number of accountability mechanisms. These include Home Office questions and the Home Affairs Select Committee in Parliament.
The annual report and accounts provide a financial and narrative summary of the activities of the Department.
They are published yearly on gov.uk, offering a review of the Home Office's vision and priorities for the year, and are subject to review by the National Audit Office. The latest one to be published covers 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to commit to reducing the waiting period for all initial asylum decisions to one year or less.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Asylum casework operations are now prioritising processing asylum claims submitted on or after the 28th June 2022 with the aim of concluding these as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to ensure that all those seeking to make an asylum claim have a safe and clear route to do so.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations under the Refugee Convention and European Convention on Human Rights. Since 2015, we have offered over half a million people a safe and legal route to the UK. With the scale of disruption and the lamentable situations that too many people find themselves in across the globe, we will never be able to provide a route for all or that meets every eventuality.
Through the cap on safe and legal routes, we are seeking to get a better idea on the capacity of local authorities to resettle refugees. By setting the cap, based on the actual capacity of the UK, we can continue to welcome people to the UK in a sustainable way and put the UK’s resettlement model on a stable and predictable footing. The consultation with local authorities is now closed. The final figure will be agreed to by Parliament. Parliament will have an opportunity to debate and vote on the cap before it comes into force.
It is only by bearing down on illegal migration, and through reverting to more sustainable management of our safe and legal routes through the cap, that we can continue to focus on helping people directly from regions of conflict and instability. We believe our resettlement schemes are the best way to provide much needed support for those who need it.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the waiting period for asylum seekers to be granted the right to work to six months rather than the current 12 months.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Asylum seekers who have had their claim outstanding for 12 months or more, through no fault of their own, are allowed to work. Those permitted to work are restricted to jobs on the Shortage Occupation List. This is based on expert advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee.
Whilst we keep all policies under review, there are no immediate plans to change the existing policy.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for preventing the deportation of individuals, brought to the UK as children, when they turn 18.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Individuals who entered the UK under the age of 18 and committed an offence after turning 18 are considered for deportation in line with legislation. Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity.
The Government is determined to do everything possible to protect the public and remove foreign criminals from the UK.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with other European countries about tackling levels of immigration.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
His Majesty’s Government continues to enhance our cooperation on migration with partners across Europe, and beyond.
UK Ministers and officials continue to raise these issues in bilateral and multilateral discussions with both our European partners and with countries outside of Europe. This Government has emphasised that tackling organised immigration crime is a Europe-wide issue; our cooperation with France saw small boats crossings reduce by 36% in 2023 when compared to 2022, and the signing of a landmark joint communiqué between the Prime Minister and his Albanian counterpart saw 5,000 Albanians returned to Albania in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy to stop all dangerous channel crossings.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Illegal Migration Act, which this Government has enacted, is an important part of our response to illegal migration. The Act marks a vital step forward to stopping dangerous, unnecessary, and illegal journeys to the UK by removing the incentives for people to take these routes in the first place.
The UK and French governments are committed to working together to stop small boat crossings of the English Channel, and in March 2023 the Prime Minister and President Macron agreed an ambitious new, multi-year, deal that will see us intensify our cooperation with the French government to prevent small boat crossings, with the aim of improving the interception rate and drastically reducing the number of crossings year-on-year. This new agreement is seeing more French personnel being deployed, supported by cutting-edge surveillance technologies and equipment; a new Zonal Coordination Centre has been established, responsible for the coordination and deployment of all relevant French law enforcement, supported by the UK and including permanently embedded British officers, and more work being done to disrupt organised crime gangs through improved intelligence sharing.
In 2023, our cooperation with France prevented over 26,000 individual crossings by small boat to the UK. Since the Joint Intelligence Cell was set up in July 2020, we have dismantled 82 organised criminal gangs responsible for people smuggling of small boats migrants.
We have developed a comprehensive illegal migration strategy to stop the boats and we are focused on delivering it; this has already seen a reduction in small boat crossings by a third in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government who owns the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland Harbour; and how much the Government are paying for usage of the barge for accommodation of asylum seekers.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Bibby Stockholm is owned by the Bibby Line Group.
Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential. Therefore, the Home Office does not publish this information. However, total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at:
Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what funding has been provided to French authorities in total to combat illegal crossings of the English Channel.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK and France maintain a longstanding relationship on tackling illegal migration at the shared border.
Since signing of the Sandhurst Treaty in 2018 the UK has provided almost €500 million in funding to support our joint work with France to tackle small boats crossings. Please see a detailed breakdown of this funding below.
YEAR | INVESTMENT |
2014/15 | £14.7m |
2015/16 | £46m |
2016/17 | £17m |
2017/18 | £36m |
2018/19 | €50m |
2019/20 | €3.6m |
€2.5m | |
2020/21 | €31.4m |
2021/22 | €62.7m |
2022/23 | €72.2m |
2023/24 | €141m |
2024/25 * | €191m |
2025/26 * | €209m |
UK-France cooperation to tackle small boats resulted in over 26,000 small boats crossings prevented in 2023, with overall small boats arrivals down by over a third compared to 2022.
*committed funding as part of 2023 UK-France Summit multi-year deal.