Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent immigration rules abuse where people on tourist visas claim asylum.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
All visitors must be able to demonstrate that they are genuine and will leave the UK at the end of their visit. The Visitor route is not intended to facilitate individuals travelling to the UK with the intention of claiming asylum. Visitor visa applications are rigorously assessed against the Immigration Rules.
We are committed to further strengthening the integrity of visa decision making by continuing to apply greater scrutiny to those where there is evidence to demonstrate a greater risk of an asylum claim once in the UK — ensuring that visas are only issued to genuine visitors.
This government has also taken decisive action to address instances of individuals using visa-free travel to reach the UK and claim asylum. As a result, we have introduced visa requirements for Jordan, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Botswana. Where we have data available (the requirement for Botswana was only introduced on 14 October 2025) this action has been extremely effective: asylum seekers from Jordan, Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago have fallen by 93% and asylum seekers at port have fallen by 99% from their peak prior to the introduction of a visa requirement compared to Q3 2025.
Where countries are not cooperating on the return of their nationals who have no right to be in the UK, including failed asylum seekers, we will not hesitate to use the visa system (particularly visit visas) to bring about better cooperation. As announced on 17 November, we have told Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Namibia that if they do not comply with international rules and norms, we will impose visa penalties on them.
Unless other countries heed this lesson, further sanctions will follow.
Any asylum claim that is then subsequently lodged from within the UK and admitted to the UK asylum system, is given full and careful consideration. Our approach is to promptly consider asylum claims, with a rapid appeals process, so that claims from genuine asylum seekers can be accepted, and those that are not, can be rejected.
The Government’s recently published Asylum Policy Statement sets out significant reforms to the UK’s asylum and illegal migration system. The Statement outlines the current challenges, the Government’s objectives, and a comprehensive package of measures to restore order, control, fairness and public confidence in the system.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for Housing on 5 February 2024 (HC8158), what proportion of the budget for social and affordable housing is spent on (1) Ukrainian and Afghan refugee and guests schemes, (2) asylum seekers, (3) migrant workers on the shortage occupation list, (4) dependents of such migrant workers, (5) workers on the health and social care visa scheme and (6) non-UK citizens.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There is not a single budget for social and affordable housing. Most of the income for social housing providers come from rent paid by tenants, some of whom have help from the welfare system to pay it. New social and affordable homes are typically funded by a mix of subsidy from government grant programmes, or through Section 106 agreements in planning permissions, combined with borrowing by landlords against future rental income.
Completed new social homes are allocated to new tenants by local authorities, unless agreed otherwise. Local authorities are responsible for their own allocation scheme for social housing within the framework of legislation.
Eligibility for social housing is tightly controlled. If a person’s visa means that they cannot access state benefits or local authority housing assistance, they are not eligible for an allocation of social housing. Asylum seekers and migrants in the UK on work or student visas are not eligible for social housing.
Data is available for all social housing lettings in England. This data does not include details of official refugee or immigration status, or route into the country. However, it does include details of nationality, based on the self-reported nationality of the lead tenant. The data shows that between April 2024 and March 2025:
These figures are publicly available (attached) in Social housing lettings in England, April 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether applications for asylum have been approved for people on the security services' watch list in the past 12 months.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The first priority of government is protecting national security.
All applications for UK immigration status, including asylum claims, are subject to comprehensive security checks. Where an individual is assessed as presenting a risk to our country, we take swift and robust action.
The Home Office uses various tools to detect and disrupt travel by individuals of national security interest and by individuals excluded from the UK; previously deported from the UK; or using lost, stolen or revoked documents and visas. This includes the use of domestic and international watchlists.
It is longstanding policy not to discuss either the specific data held on the watchlist, the source of the data or how it is used, as to do so would be counterproductive and harmful to the national security of the UK.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent people who overstay their visas from working illegally for companies within the UK.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Under UK legislation, access to work is reserved to those who are eligible and have lawful immigration status in the UK. All employers are required to undertake right to work checks on any prospective employee to confirm their legal status. Sanctions exist where these requirements are not complied with.
The Government is leading a UK-wide crackdown on illegal working as part of a whole system approach to tackle illegal migration and to ensure fairness, order and control within the immigration and asylum system. This includes measures in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill to ensure companies which contract workers to provide services under their company name, such as agency workers or workers in the gig economy, check a person’s right to work, intensified Home Office Immigration Enforcement teams operational activity across the UK as well as the recently announced introduction of digital ID by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claims were made by people holding student visas by nationality in the last 12 months; and what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the number of such claims.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of people claiming asylum after entering the UK with a visa or other leave, by nationality and type of leave, in the year ending June 2025 is published in table Asy_01e of the ‘Asylum summary tables’. Data for the year ending September 2025 will be published on 27 November 2025.
The UK keeps its visa system under regular review, and the government has been clear that we will do whatever it takes to tackle the issue of visa abuse.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued to staff who (a) examine and (b) process asylum claims on the implementation of background checks.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asylum caseworkers receive extensive training and mentoring for the role. All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to establish their identity and to link it to their biometric details for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks - including war crimes, crimes against humanity and terrorism.
The Home Office performs mandatory identity verification and security checks on individuals applying to enter or remain in the UK. These checks are set out in comprehensive, internal guidance called the UK Visas and Immigration Operating Mandate (OM). To protect the integrity of the specific identity and security checking processes that are conducted under the OM, the information contained within it is not disclosed publicly.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people evacuated from Gaza under the medical treatment scheme have since applied for or been granted (a) asylum, (b) humanitarian protection and (c) leave to remain in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The children medically evacuated to the UK, alongside their immediate family members, have been issued with visas and granted leave to remain for up to two years. These families have the ability to access public funds, including treatment and wraparound support in the UK.
Should these individuals wish to remain in the UK beyond the initial two years, they can apply for further permission to stay under existing routes within the Immigration Rules.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's accredited official statistics entitled How many people claim asylum in the UK?, published on 21 August 2025, what assessment she made of the potential implications for her policies of the 8,900 asylum applications from people with a visitor visa.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
In the year ending June 2025, UK Visas and Immigration issued 2.2 million Visitor visas. Applicants must satisfy the decision-maker that they are a genuine visitor who will leave the UK at the end of their Visit, and if not the decision-maker will refuse the visa application.
The UK keeps its visa system under regular review, and the government has been clear that we will do whatever it takes to tackle the issue of visa abuse.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address challenges faced by agencies and the police in identifying individuals within the asylum system who may pose a threat to national security.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The first priority of government is protecting national security.
The Home Office uses various tools to detect and disrupt travel by individuals of national security interest and by individuals excluded from the UK; previously deported from the UK; or using lost, stolen or revoked documents and visas. This includes the use of domestic and international watchlists.
All applications for UK immigration status, including asylum claims, are subject to comprehensive security checks. Where an individual is assessed as presenting a risk to our country, we take swift and robust action.
It is longstanding policy not to discuss either the specific data held on the watchlist, the source of the data or how it is used, as to do so would be counterproductive and harmful to the national security of the UK.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of levels of immigration on the availability of (a) social housing and (b) private rental housing stock over the next Parliament.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is determined to address the dire inheritance left by its predecessor and restore order to the asylum and immigration systems, delivering lower net migration.
The factors affecting supply and demand in the private rented sector are complex and difficult to disentangle. As well as demographic change, they include house prices, rent levels, taxation policy, interest rates, and the movement of tenants into homeownership and social rented housing. It is not possible to isolate the specific impact of each of these factors.
Eligibility for social housing is already tightly controlled. If a person’s visa means that they cannot access state benefits or local authority housing assistance, they are not eligible for an allocation of social housing. Migrants arriving in the UK on student or work visas are not eligible and nor are those who arrive in the country illegally with no leave to remain.
The most sustainable long-term method to improve housing availability and affordability is to increase the supply of housing. That is why the government’s Plan for Change includes a hugely ambitious milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England in this Parliament.