Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of not resolving the status of children in care before turning 18 on their development.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Secretary set out in the Immigration White Paper published on 12 May that the Home Office will ensure children who have been in the UK for some time, turn 18 and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle where appropriate. This will also include a clear pathway for those children in care and care leavers.
Policy development is ongoing, but as part of this, separate targeted engagement will take place with external stakeholders to help us to understand the challenges in this area and develop a policy solution which supports children in care without status while upholding the need to have a robust and coherent migration system. Children who have claimed asylum are dealt with under separate provisions.
A range of reforms are underway across the immigration and asylum system, and the development of a clear pathway to settlement for children in care and care leavers must be considered alongside these changes.
Asked by: Chris Kane (Labour - Stirling and Strathallan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the contribution made to the social and charitable sectors by volunteers on the Charity Worker Visa route.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office values the contribution made by volunteers on the Charity Worker visa route to the social and charitable sectors, though no formal assessment has been carried out. All visa routes are kept under regular review to ensure they are operating as intended.
Asked by: Graeme Downie (Labour - Dunfermline and Dollar)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Ukraine visas extensions applications have been affected by technical issues in each of the last three years.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The number of applications affected by technical issues does not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many families and children are directly restricted by No Recourse to Public Funds.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition applies to the vast majority of adult temporary migrants in the UK and those without legal status, many of whom may not be in touch with the Home Office.
Data on the children within migrant families is not routinely collected. However, the Home Office regularly engages with stakeholders via the NRPF forum which provides a platform to raise concerns and share experiences of those affected by the policy.
Data on the number of applications from those wishing to have their NRPF condition lifted is published.
The Home Office has committed to working with the Department for Work and Pensions to develop questions on No Recourse to Public Funds for inclusion in the Family Resources survey 2026/2027, a household survey undertaken annually to explore living standards in the UK.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the level of impact of disruption to entry and exit systems at UK borders during the Christmas period on the economy.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Entry / Exit System (EES) is an EU system; we are working with the French authorities and UK operators at St Pancras, Folkestone, and Port of Dover to minimise disruption.
There has been no disruption at the UK border related to EES. The system is being introduced through a phased implementation, and no meaningful assessment can be made at this stage of the rollout.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of streamlining visa arrangements for musicians, performers, and other cultural professionals working between the UK and the EU.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK immigration system is generous in its provisions for musicians, performers and other cultural professionals, with different pathways for non-visa nationals (such as EU/EEA nationals) in the creative sector to come to the UK without requiring a visa. We continually keep our policies under review and the Government has committed to supporting touring artists at the UK-EU summit in May last year.
Asked by: Chris Kane (Labour - Stirling and Strathallan)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Charity Worker Visa applications have been granted in each year of the operation of that visa route.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa route, including Charity Worker visas, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on the outcomes of visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of September 2025.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have consulted non-governmental organisations, immigration lawyers and legal aid experts about whether people facing removal under the 'one in, one out' scheme have sufficient time to access legal representation or challenge removal decisions.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The pilot was agreed with both France and the European Commission in order to ensure it is compliant with domestic, European and International law. Eligibility criteria are set out in the Agreement.
The pilot operates within existing legal frameworks and policies. All individuals will have their cases reviewed regularly in line with standard policies and guidance, and this includes both while detained and if any claims of being a victim of torture or of human trafficking and modern slavery are raised.
Decisions on continuing suitability for detention are made on a case-by-case basis.
Detained individuals are advised of their right to legal representation, and how they can obtain such representation, within 24 hours of their arrival at an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC). Ahead of pilot launch and throughout its duration, the Home Office has engaged with officials from the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary to ensure individuals have access to justice. The Home Office continues to engage with a wide range of NGOs and other external stakeholders.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what support is offered to potential victims of torture, trafficking or modern slavery who may face removal under the 'one in, one out' scheme.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The pilot was agreed with both France and the European Commission in order to ensure it is compliant with domestic, European and International law. Eligibility criteria are set out in the Agreement.
The pilot operates within existing legal frameworks and policies. All individuals will have their cases reviewed regularly in line with standard policies and guidance, and this includes both while detained and if any claims of being a victim of torture or of human trafficking and modern slavery are raised.
Decisions on continuing suitability for detention are made on a case-by-case basis.
Detained individuals are advised of their right to legal representation, and how they can obtain such representation, within 24 hours of their arrival at an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC). Ahead of pilot launch and throughout its duration, the Home Office has engaged with officials from the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary to ensure individuals have access to justice. The Home Office continues to engage with a wide range of NGOs and other external stakeholders.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 22 December 2025 (HL12809), what criteria they are using to select specific individuals out of those eligible for removal to France under the 'one-in, one-out' scheme.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The pilot was agreed with both France and the European Commission in order to ensure it is compliant with domestic, European and International law. Eligibility criteria are set out in the Agreement.
The pilot operates within existing legal frameworks and policies. All individuals will have their cases reviewed regularly in line with standard policies and guidance, and this includes both while detained and if any claims of being a victim of torture or of human trafficking and modern slavery are raised.
Decisions on continuing suitability for detention are made on a case-by-case basis.
Detained individuals are advised of their right to legal representation, and how they can obtain such representation, within 24 hours of their arrival at an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC). Ahead of pilot launch and throughout its duration, the Home Office has engaged with officials from the Ministry of Justice and the judiciary to ensure individuals have access to justice. The Home Office continues to engage with a wide range of NGOs and other external stakeholders.