Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 September 2020 to Question 91653, what comparative assessment she has made of the barriers the UK is facing to resettlement activity due to the covid-19 pandemic with France where resettlement activity has recommenced.

We remain unable to undertake resettlement activity at this stage due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic. We are continuing to evaluate how to respond given these restrictions and pressures, but we expect to resume when safe. Our plans for restarting depend on a variety of factors, including the lifting of restrictions imposed by the governments of host refugee countries, local authority and central government capacity, 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. When the above conditions have been satisfied we will engage with our local authority partners on their readiness and appetite for restarting resettlement.