Contributions
2,978 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationMy hon. Friend is right: the measures in this set of rules are only a first step. The asylum and immigration system has far more systematic and fundamental problems that cause it,…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationIt is not for me to tell the chief inspector how to conduct his inspections and his affairs, but I would say that Penally has been set up in a thoughtful and careful way. We have…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationThe contracts for the three service providers were awarded after a thorough process to evaluate the bids and they are, of course, subject to ongoing scrutiny on issues such as…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationWe are protecting asylum seekers from destitution at the moment. I have already pointed out that we are spending in the region of £1 billion a year supporting the various cohorts…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationI welcome my hon. Friend’s question. We intend to introduce legislation in the first half of next year, but that will of course be consulted on, so that everyone with an interest…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationThe changes are designed to ensure that we can enter into agreements with other countries to replace Dublin. They are designed to ensure that people who unnecessarily come to the…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationMy hon. Friend is right in the sense that the system does not work currently in the way that it should. People are able to make repeated, unmeritorious and sometimes vexatious…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationI can assure the hon. Member that while the process unfolds of seeking another country to receive the person, support will be made available to avoid the risk of destitution. The…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationLet me reassure the shadow Minister on one or two points. She concluded her questions by asking about the risk of destitution. To be clear, if somebody who is in the inadmissible…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationFirst, as I have said, the people in this cohort will not be in limbo, because after a reasonable period, if no return to another country is possible, the asylum claim will be…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationI thank my right hon. Friend, who has a distinguished legal background, for his question. He is absolutely right: we need to deter these crossings, and we need to ensure that our…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationOn the Select Committee Chair’s question about accommodation and support, I can confirm that it will be available, as I have said already, because not to provide it would breach…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationI thank my hon. Friend and Stoke-on-Trent for their work to welcome genuine refugees, including work under the resettlement programme. He raises a good point, because some parts…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationI have already given the assurance about destitution to the shadow Minister and to the Chair of the Select Committee. The right hon. Gentleman will know that the asylum system in…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationMy hon. Friend is quite right that hotels are being used in central London and, indeed, in other cities. That is a consequence of the very short-term pressures created by…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationIt is not a hostile environment. The accommodation meets the required standards. As I explained in my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Kensington (Felicity Buchan), we are…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationMy hon. Friend is right: speeding up the decision making is in everybody’s interests. It will mean that fewer people will need to be accommodated, it will be good for those people…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationThe size of the immigration detention estate has actually shrunk considerably over the past five or six years. I think I am right in saying that it has reduced in size by, very…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationThere is a robust screening process in place, via the single competent authority and the national referral mechanism. That is working, I think it is fair to say, extremely…16 Dec 2020HANSARD Immigration Rules: Supported AccommodationMy hon. Friend is right. European Union countries, including the ones she lists, are manifestly safe and civilised countries. People who find themselves in need of protection in…16 Dec 2020