Point of Order

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster Excerpts

Monday 27th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kinnock (Aberavon) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On 13 December, in response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) regarding the size of the current asylum backlog, the Prime Minister stood at the Government Dispatch Box and claimed, wrongly, that

“the backlog…is half the size that it was when Labour was in office”.—[Official Report, 13 December 2022; Vol. 724, c. 903.]

Six days later, the Minister for Immigration went even further, claiming at the same Dispatch Box that

“the backlog of cases was 450,000 when the last Labour Government handed over to us.”—[Official Report, 19 December 2022; Vol. 725, c. 8.]

Other Government Members have repeated those claims. I suspected that those claims were highly questionable, so on 19 December I wrote to the UK Statistics Authority, requesting clarification.

I am pleased to inform the House that the chief executive of the UK Statistics Authority responded to my request on Thursday. His letter to me is crystal clear. The asylum backlog when Labour left office in 2010 was not in the hundreds of thousands; it was 18,954. Under the Conservatives, it is now 166,261—more than eight times larger than it was in 2010. The UK Statistics Authority is using the Home Office’s own statistics, so it is somewhat odd that the Ministers did not know that they had been playing fast and loose with the facts.

I would be grateful for your advice, Madam Deputy Speaker, on how you feel Ministers should go about apologising to our constituents and correcting the record at the earliest possible opportunity, in compliance with their obligations under paragraph 1.3(c) of the ministerial code.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving me notice of his intention to raise his point of order. He is aware that the contents of Ministers’ contributions in the House are not a matter for the Chair, but he is right to say that the ministerial code requires Ministers to correct any inadvertent errors in answers to parliamentary questions at the earliest opportunity. As it happens, Ministers from the Home Office are present and will have heard—[Interruption.] Excuse me. The Ministers will have heard what he had to say, and I am sure that if they feel there is anything that needs to be corrected, they will do that at the earliest opportunity. I am sure that if the hon. Gentleman wishes to raise any further issues, the Table Office will advise him on how he can pursue them. I think we will leave it at that.

[Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) (Lab)]

Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Given that two of the relevant Ministers were sitting in the Chamber at the time, may I ask whether you have ever heard of a situation in which it is abundantly clear from evidence from the UK Statistics Authority that Ministers have given incorrect information to Parliament and they have chosen not to correct it straight away?

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

There is no obligation on Ministers who are in the Chamber to respond. [Interruption.] Could we have a bit of quiet, please? Ministers may wish to look at what has been said and come back, but, as I have said, it is up to them. It is clear what is in the ministerial code, and I am sure that the points have been heard. I suggest that we now move on.

Bill Presented

Inquests (Legal Representation) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Paul Maynard presented a Bill to prohibit public bodies from spending more on legal representation at an inquest than the amount spent by families of the deceased; to require the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on the availability and accessibility of legal representation for families at inquests; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 24 November, and to be printed (Bill 281).