Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2020 to Question 64881 on Refugees, what progress she has made on recommencing (a) refugee resettlement programmes and (b) the community sponsorship scheme.

We are working on detailed plans to recommence resettlement arrivals as soon as it is safe and operationally viable to do so.

The resumption of refugee resettlement arrivals, including community sponsorship, remains dependent on a number of factors including: restarting flights from refugee host countries; the lifting of restrictions imposed by the governments of those countries and in the UK; the ability of our international partners to operate; the reopening of the UK’s visa application centres; local authority and central government capacity in light of COVID-19; and recovery of the asylum system from the impact of COVID-19.

We continue to closely monitor the situation and remain in regular dialogue with our international and domestic stakeholders.