The Bishop of Durham received the following written answers on 8th December 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government how many children are currently waiting for a decision on their asylum application and have waited for over six months.
Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con): The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release, which can be found on go.uk. Data on the number of people awaiting a decision on an asylum application are published in table ASY_D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’, which can be found attached. Age breakdowns are not available in the published data.
The Lord Bishop of Durham asked what assessment they have made of whether issuing priority removal notices and evidence notices to those under the age of 18 at the time of their arrival in the UK is compliant with (1) the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, (2) the Children Act 1989, and (3) the Children Act 2004.
Baroness Williams of Trafford: As part of our obligations under the public sector equality duty, an equality impact assessment has been completed in respect of the measures in the Nationality and Borders Bill concerning priority removal notices and evidence notices, this includes a consideration of possible impacts on children.
The Lord Bishop of Durham asked Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office on 16 April (175879), whether they now intend to publish the internal review looking into the assessment of asylum claims on the grounds of (1) religion, and (2) sexuality.
Baroness Williams of Trafford: The UK has a proud record of providing protection to individuals fleeing persecution based on their religious beliefs, sexual orientation and gender identity and are committed to delivering an asylum system that is responsive to all forms of persecution.
The review into the way asylum claims on the basis of religious and LGBT+ grounds are assessed has been completed. The Home Office do not have any plans to publish the findings of this internal review.
The Church of England in Parliament 
You must be logged in to post a comment.