Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2020 to Question 111491, what criteria her Department is using to assess when it is safe to resume refugee resettlement activity.

Subsequent to the Honourable Member's question of 4 November, I am pleased to say that, as announced by Baroness Williams of Trafford in the House of Lords on 9 November, the UK will shortly restart resettlement arrivals to fulfil our commitment of resettling 20,000 refugees affected by the conflict in Syria under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) and we are working closely with partners to deliver this commitment.

Due to the lead times for refugee arrivals, it is likely that we will see most refugees start to arrive early in the new year