Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Hanson of Flint on 13 December 2024 (HL Deb cols 2010–12), whether the pilot will involve newly recognised refugees with lived experience of the moving on period; what the criteria will be to evaluate success; who is undertaking the pilot; and whether the interim findings will be published, and if so when.

The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) & RSM have been contracted to undertake an evaluation of the changes to the move on period on behalf of the Home Office. This evaluation will cover the extension of the move on period to 56 days, the provision of liaison officers to support those granted asylum, and the provision of £2.8m recognition payment for select local authorities. It will assess the implementation, early outcomes and value for money of these initiatives. It will also assess the early impact of the rollout of eVisas and how this interacts with the above initiatives.

The following outcomes are of interest, and the evaluation will assess how/whether the changes to the move on period have:

• Reduced the length of stay in asylum accommodation from decision to exit.
• Reduced homelessness amongst newly granted refugees.
• Improved early engagement by local authorities and partners in the move on process.
• Improved signposting to support.
• Improved move on outcomes, e.g. smoother transitions into secured housing, with access to bank account, Universal Credit / work.

Evaluation methods include interviews with newly granted refugees to capture insights from those with lived experience of the move on process.

Interim evaluation findings are due to be delivered shortly, with final evaluation findings delivered this summer.