Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Afghanistan who were resettled to the UK under the (a) ARAP and (b) ACRS have been evicted from bridging accommodation in each of the last 12 months; of those people, how many and what proportion were (a) moved to temporary accommodation and (b) without accommodation upon eviction; and how many and what proportion of those people are (i) in temporary accommodation and (ii) without accommodation as of 13 October 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Our recent release of transparency data, published on 19 September 2023, following the end of hotels being used as bridging accommodation can be accessed at Afghan bridging hotel exit operational data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The latest statistics (published on 24th August 2023) from the immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) provides a quarterly breakdown of the number of individuals resettled under both the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) in temporary accommodation up until the end of June 2023. For detailed data, see table Asy D02.
From the end of April 2023, resettled Afghan families staying in hotels and serviced apartments began to receive Notices to Quit their bridging accommodation. Residents received at least three months' notice to make arrangements to leave their hotel or serviced accommodation and were given clear guidance on the support they could access to help them find their own accommodation.
Despite all efforts, some families have been unable to find their own accommodation or unwilling to take up offers of housing and have needed to present as homeless. The statutory homelessness system provides a safety net, and no family will be left without a roof over their head.
We are unable to provide a running commentary on bridging accommodation occupation. When the notices to quit were announced by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs on 28 March, there were over 8,000 Afghans living in bridging accommodation.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people from Afghanistan who were resettled to the UK under the (a) ARAP and (b) ACRS remain in a bridging hotel after their notice to quit date has passed because they have not found alternative accommodation as of 13 October 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Our recent release of transparency data, published on 19 September 2023, following the end of hotels being used as bridging accommodation can be accessed at Afghan bridging hotel exit operational data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The latest statistics (published on 24th August 2023) from the immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) provides a quarterly breakdown of the number of individuals resettled under both the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) in temporary accommodation up until the end of June 2023. For detailed data, see table Asy D02.
From the end of April 2023, resettled Afghan families staying in hotels and serviced apartments began to receive Notices to Quit their bridging accommodation. Residents received at least three months' notice to make arrangements to leave their hotel or serviced accommodation and were given clear guidance on the support they could access to help them find their own accommodation.
Despite all efforts, some families have been unable to find their own accommodation or unwilling to take up offers of housing and have needed to present as homeless. The statutory homelessness system provides a safety net, and no family will be left without a roof over their head.
We are unable to provide a running commentary on bridging accommodation occupation. When the notices to quit were announced by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs on 28 March, there were over 8,000 Afghans living in bridging accommodation.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of people from Afghanistan who were resettled to the UK under the (a) ARAP and (b) ACRS were in bridging accommodation when her Department (i) announced that it would begin to issue and (ii) began to issue notices to quit.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Our recent release of transparency data, published on 19 September 2023, following the end of hotels being used as bridging accommodation can be accessed at Afghan bridging hotel exit operational data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The latest statistics (published on 24th August 2023) from the immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) provides a quarterly breakdown of the number of individuals resettled under both the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) in temporary accommodation up until the end of June 2023. For detailed data, see table Asy D02.
From the end of April 2023, resettled Afghan families staying in hotels and serviced apartments began to receive Notices to Quit their bridging accommodation. Residents received at least three months' notice to make arrangements to leave their hotel or serviced accommodation and were given clear guidance on the support they could access to help them find their own accommodation.
Despite all efforts, some families have been unable to find their own accommodation or unwilling to take up offers of housing and have needed to present as homeless. The statutory homelessness system provides a safety net, and no family will be left without a roof over their head.
We are unable to provide a running commentary on bridging accommodation occupation. When the notices to quit were announced by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs on 28 March, there were over 8,000 Afghans living in bridging accommodation.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the compatibility of the Illegal Migration Bill with international humanitarian law.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government takes its international obligations very seriously. There is nothing in the Bill that requires the Government to act incompatibly with our international obligations.
The Home Secretary and I have had regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues about the Bill.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of processing times for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards. Resource has now been restored to the ECAA team.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the processing times for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards.
Full resource has now been restored to the team.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time is for Turkish Businessperson visa extension applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest data on ECAA matters is routinely published as part of UKVI Transparency data.
The most recent published data for outstanding ECCA applications can be found here: Visas and Citizenship data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Under Visas and Citizenship Data, Tab VSI_03 includes the number of straightforward applications and non-straightforward applications which remained outstanding at the end of the last reported period.
The Home Office had been prioritising Ukraine Visa Scheme applications in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, which has impacted on the delivery of some of our service standards.
Full resource has now been restored to the team.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the asylum transformation programme includes a commitment to reinstate the 6-month service standard for decisions on all straightforward asylum applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A new accelerated service standard is being developed and we are testing the impact of several coordinated initiatives, including enhanced screening, case triage, centralised workflow and streamlined decision templates, in order to improve productivity and increase decision rates.
To accelerate decision making we are simplifying and modernising our system. This includes measures like shortening interviews, removing unnecessary interviews, making guidance simpler and more accessible, dealing with cases more swiftly where they can be certified as manifestly unfounded and extra decision makers.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on implementing the (a) Asylum Accommodation and Support Transformation programme and (b) PACE pilot in Scotland.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
a - Asylum Accommodation and Support Transformation programme – The Home Office are looking to implement delivery plans in conjunction with our providers and Local Authorities to further support full dispersal.
b - PACE pilot in Scotland – As part of the Home Office Asylum Transformation programme, we are taking immediate action to bring the asylum backlog down with the nationwide rollout of a successful casework Pilot from Leeds. The aim of this is to improve asylum initial decision-making productivity, focussing on streamlining the decision-making process and reducing the time it takes to interview, consider and serve an asylum decision through a number of process improvements. The rollout of the PACE pilot to all Home Office sites is due to be complete by May 2023 and we will roll out the approach to our operational sites over the coming months.
To further accelerate decision making we will further drive productivity improvements by simplifying and modernising our system. This includes measures like shortening interviews, removing unnecessary interviews, making guidance simpler and more accessible, dealing with cases more swiftly where they can be certified as manifestly unfounded and recruiting extra decision makers.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum applications are outstanding pending an initial decision in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications awaiting a decision can be found in table Asy_D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks. Please note the data show a snapshot as at the last day of each quarter, rather than the number of asylum applications awaiting a decision over the entire quarter. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2022. Data as at 31 December 2022 will be published on 23 February 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Please note data in table Asy_D03 is broken down by applications awaiting an initial decision for 6 months or less, and longer than 6 months only.