Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the financial impact on the RNLI of proposed Government amendments to the Nationality and Borders Bill.

We do not anticipate that the amendment laid by the Government to the Nationality and Borders Bill in respect of assisting unlawful immigration or an asylum seeker (clause 40) will have any financial impact on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Government Amendment 63 has been made to allow RNLI to continue as now and it doesn’t require any changes of practice from them.

Home Office officials have discussed clause 40, Government Amendment 63 and the duty to rescue persons in distress at sea with the RNLI.