Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the UK’s asylum system takes into account gender or trauma related needs.

The UK has a proud history of providing protection to the most vulnerable people in genuine need, including women, and this will not change. This government remains committed to delivering a gender-sensitive asylum system ensuring all those who seek asylum are treated with dignity and respect.

The Nationality and Borders Bill will deliver the Government’s New Plan for Immigration – the most comprehensive reform in decades, to fix the broken asylum system. The reformed asylum system will be sensitive to gender and trauma-related needs, for example continuing to provide the opportunity for all those claiming asylum to be interviewed by an individual of the same gender and a trauma informed approach to avoid re-traumatisation whilst an individual is in the asylum system.

We are taking into account commissioned research and experiences of those seeking asylum. Engagement through our stakeholder networks, including on the New Plan for Immigration, is already underway, as we build a system that is fair, but firm; safeguarding those who may be vulnerable and protecting against any unintended consequences.

We routinely publish breakdowns of asylum applications outcomes by gender which are publicly available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.