Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likelihood that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights will be used by individuals entering the UK on the resettlement scheme to bring additional family members.

As announced by the Home Secretary on 28 September, the Home Office has started receiving new referrals for the United Kingdom Resettlement Scheme (UKRS) in 26/27.

The Government expects the total arrivals across the UKRS and the three new community sponsorship routes to number in the low hundreds at first.

Individuals identified for resettlement under the UKRS are usually resettled as part of immediate family units.

Through the Immigration and Asylum Bill, the Home Office will limit the application of Article 8 claims in three ways: strengthening and rebalancing the public interest test to ensure issues that are central to the public interest are considered; defining family life for the purposes of Article 8, by setting out a clear framing for decision makers and the courts that it should not normally go beyond immediate family members; and requiring Article 8 family life claims from those outside of the UK to be made by a UK-based sponsor.