Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the work ban for people seeking asylum on future employment opportunities.

Our primary responsibility remains to crack down on illegal working, and ensure that those employers and employees who play by the rules are not undercut by those who are not.

Asylum seekers who have had their claim outstanding for 12 months or more, through no fault of their own, can currently apply for permission to work in jobs on the Immigration Salary List (ISL). The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration and asylum system under regular review, and recently published a White Paper setting out the Government’s plans for reform in relation to the exploitation and abuse of migrant workers, and a wide range of other areas.

The Home Office also continues to invest in a programme of transformation to speed up asylum decision making and therefore reduce the time people spend in the asylum system. This approach will ensure that genuine asylum seekers can be accepted quickly and gain access to the labour market, and those who are not can be removed to their home country.