Braverman does not deny government considering housing asylum seekers on cruise ships
Lady Hamwee asks if disused cruise ships might be used to house asylum seekers.
Braverman says her preference is to house asylum seekers via local authorities. They currently house 57,000 people. She wants to get that to 100,000.
The next option is to go for hotels.
But hotel use is an unacceptable cost to the taxpayers, she says. That is why the government said they would use other venues.
She says the government is looking at using disused holiday parks and former student halls to house migrants.
As for whether cruise ships could be used, Braverman just says that the government is talking to a “wide variety of providers and that “everything is still on the table and nothing is excluded”.
Key events
Filters BETA
Britain’s GDP now 5.5% smaller than it would have been without Brexit, thinktank claims
Britain’s GDP was 5.5% smaller by the second quarter of this year than it would have been without Brexit, a thinktank claims.
In his analysis for the Centre for European Reform, John Springford also says that almost all the tax increases announced by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor in March would not have been needed if the UK had enjoyed the extra tax revenue it would have got from higher growth if it had stayed in the EU.
Sprinford says his analysis is based on the the ‘doppelgänger’ method, which involves finding countries whose economic performance closely matched the UK’s before Brexit and then using their performance since to estimate what might have happened to doppelgänger UK if it had stayed in the UK.
Springford says:
The method provides a counterfactual UK that did not leave the EU. Chart 1 shows quarterly estimates of the cost of Brexit to the second quarter of 2022. UK GDP is 5.5% lower than that of the doppelgänger. Investment is 11% lower; goods trade, 7% lower; and services trade is around the same.
The Brexit hit has inevitably led to tax rises, because a slower-growing economy requires higher taxation to fund public services and benefits. If Brexit had not happened, most of the tax rises that then chancellor Rishi Sunak announced in March 2022 would not have been necessary. If the UK economy had grown in line with the doppelgänger, tax revenues would have been around £40bn higher on an annual basis (if we apply the same tax-to-GDP ratio as in 2021-2 – 34%). In his March 2022 budget, Sunak announced tax rises of £46bn.
Here is chart 1.
When Springford last published an analysis like this, in June, it said that the UK’s GDP was 5.2% lower at the end of 2021 than it would have been without Brexit.
Postal strike blamed as only quarter of energy bill vouchers for December claimed so far
Only around a quarter of the government’s energy bills vouchers have been claimed in December, as postal strikes have left households across the country waiting on payments amid plunging temperatures, PA Media reports. PA says:
Just 27% of vouchers issued under the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) for people with traditional prepayment meters have been redeemed in December, according to data from PayPoint up to 18 December.
In comparison, 80% of the vouchers issued in October and 73% of November’s vouchers have been redeemed, indicating a sharp drop in the volume of households cashing in their payments this month.
Homes across Great Britain have been promised £400 in payments this winter to help them with energy bills.
For a majority of customers the money is automatically deducted from their energy bills. But those who pay through a traditional prepayment meter have to redeem vouchers.
PayPoint, which has payment services in 28,000 UK retailers such as newsagents and convenience stores, and through which households can cash in their postal vouchers in-store, said that December’s redemption figures were lower than it would expect.
Typically, around three-quarters of all the vouchers are issued by post and a quarter are sent through email.
Just 17% of December’s postal vouchers have been redeemed, a sharp drop compared to 78% of October’s and 74% of November’s vouchers that have been claimed.
Meanwhile, 63% of December’s vouchers issued by email have been claimed.
PayPoint said that the drop-off in claims this month could be linked to strike action in the UK causing delayed delivery.
2.4m EU nationals protected from losing right to stay in UK after court defeat for Home Office
More than 2 million EU nationals living in the UK should be at less risk of losing their right to stay as a result of a court judgment against the Home Office this morning.
The case was brought by the Independent Monitoring Authority, a watchdog set up as part of the Brexit agreement to safeguard the rights of EU citizens living in the UK.
Under the Brexit deal, EU nationals in this country at the time the UK left were allowed to stay provided they could obtain so-called settled status from the Home Office. This was available to people who had been living in the UK continuously for five years.
EU nationals who did not meet the five-year threshold were allowed to apply for pre-settled status. This also allows them to stay, but it is time-limited, and if people do not apply to upgrade to settled status, after five years they lose the right to stay.
According to the IMA, around 2.6 million people were granted pre-settled status before the cut-off point, at the end of the Brexit transition period. The IMA argued in a judicial review that it was unlawful for the government to remove the right to stay from this group.
In a judgment, the high court has accepted the IMA case.
Robert Palmer KC, representing the IMA, said that more than 2 million people were at risk of being treated as “illegal overstayers”. He said:
If a person with [pre-settled] status does not make a further application for settled status or pre-settled status, the effect of the scheme is that that person will automatically lose their right to residence in the UK, making them an illegal overstayer who is liable to detention and removal.
Here is the summary of the court’s ruling from the IMA.
Lord Justice Lane ruled that a right of residence can only be lost in very specific circumstances which are clearly defined in the EU withdrawal and EEA Efta separation agreements.
A loss of rights for failure to upgrade from pre-settled to settled status was not one of those circumstances, and so by imposing a requirement to upgrade residence status the Home Office was acting unlawfully. The judge also said that those granted pre-settled status are entitled to reside permanently in the UK once they have resided there for the required five-year period.
As a result of his findings, the judge has made a declaration that the EUSS in these respects, as it is currently operating, is unlawful.
In a statement after the ruling, the IMA chief executive, Dr Kathryn Chamberlain, said:
I am pleased that the judge has recognised the significant impact this issue could have had on the lives and livelihoods of citizens with pre-settled status in the UK.
When we brought this judicial review, our intention was to provide clarity for citizens with pre-settled status, of which there were over 2.4 million when we filed this case in December 2021. This judgment that the current system is unlawful provides that clarity. We will now liaise with the Home Office on the next steps.
Lord Murray, a Home Office minister, said the government was “disappointed” by the judgment and intended to appeal.
Fears voter ID card delay could disfranchise many in England
A government website allowing people to sign up for free voter ID documents will not be ready in time for a publicity campaign about the electoral changes, the Guardian has learned, increasing fears that large numbers of people could be disfranchised. My colleague Peter Walker has the story here.
Population growth slowing in all four UK nations, ONS figures suggest
Population growth slowed in all four UK nations in the decade to 2021, PA Media reports. PA says:
Wales is estimated to have seen the lowest growth at just 1.4%, down sharply from 5.3% in the previous decade, while Scotland’s population grew by 3.4%, down from 4.7%.
England saw the highest level of growth, with its population increasing by 6.5%, though this was down from 7.4% over the previous 10 years.
Northern Ireland also saw slower growth of 3.4%, down from 4.7%.
Overall, the UK population is estimated to have grown by 5.9% in the decade to June 2021, up 3.7 million to a total of 67 million.
This compares with growth of 7.1% in the decade to mid-2011.
The figures have been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and are based on the 2021 censuses for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, along with separate estimates for Scotland, where the census was delayed to 2022.
Q: Have you found another airline willing to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda, after the original firm pulled out?
Braverman says the Home Office is in discussion with various airlines.
And that’s the end of the session.
Braverman rejects claim there is public support for letting asylum seekers work while their claims are considered
Hamwee tells Braverman she should consider the “strength of feeling” in the Lords in favour of asylum seekers being allowed to work.
Braverman says she has not seen polling on this. And she says she does not think her constituents are in favour.
Lord Blunkett, the Labour former home secretary, goes next.
Q: After the migration figures came out, there was a briefing saying the government would reduce the number of foreign students allowed into the UK – even though students were not to blame for the figures being so high. One report said foreign students would not be allowed to study at lower-quality universities, and another said foreign students might face new restrictions on the relatives they can bring.
Braverman says all the rules relating to the points based system are kept under review.
She says she cannot confirm what changes might be introduced. The government is always considering options.
But she says the government has already reached the target it set for increasing the number of foreign students coming to the UK.
It is right to asks if the government is striking the right balance, she says. Growing numbers of people coming to the UK have an impact, she says.
Q: That briefing was not authorised, and was not government policy?
Braverman says she cannot comment on briefings. She speaks for the Home Office.
Matthew Rycroft says he thinks the briefing that Blunkett is referring to came from No 10. He says he thinks it was “factually accurate”, in that all of these things are under review. But there is no particular plan in mind, he says.
Blunkett says he used to be education secretary. Foreign students subsidise universities, he says. He says he hopes this is recognised.
Lady Sanderson (Con) asks how the government will change modern slavery legislation.
Braverman says she is proud of the legislation introduced by Theresa May.
But the generosity and compassion of the British people are being abused, she claims. The system is being abused by people who are gaming it.
The system will be reformed to make it better able to support victims, she says.
Shami Chakrabarti (Lab) goes next. She raises the case of Charlotte Lynch, the journalist arrested for covering a protest.
Q: Will you consider my amendment to the public order bill saying powers in the bill should never be used against journalists?
Braverman says protesters are becoming more ingenious. The police need robust powers.
But she says the rights of journalists need to be be protected too.
She says she will look at Chakrabarti’s amemdment.
Braverman does not deny government considering housing asylum seekers on cruise ships
Lady Hamwee asks if disused cruise ships might be used to house asylum seekers.
Braverman says her preference is to house asylum seekers via local authorities. They currently house 57,000 people. She wants to get that to 100,000.
The next option is to go for hotels.
But hotel use is an unacceptable cost to the taxpayers, she says. That is why the government said they would use other venues.
She says the government is looking at using disused holiday parks and former student halls to house migrants.
As for whether cruise ships could be used, Braverman just says that the government is talking to a “wide variety of providers and that “everything is still on the table and nothing is excluded”.
Helena Kennedy (Lab) goes next.
Q: Many asylum seekers have mental health problems. The companies in charge of finding them accommodation are deeply inadequate. People are left without proper mental health support. There is a helpline, but people can ring it and be told they are 60th in the queue. And why don’t you let people work?
Braverman says 117,000 people are being accommodated. Accommodation and support are costing £3.5bn.
Q: A lot of profit is being made by these firms. It is shocking. Why don’t you use NGOs, or other bodies?
Braverman says that is not realistic. She says no charity can provide 100,000 beds.
The government has to work closely with local authorities, she says.
She says over 40,000 people are in hotel accommodation. The state cannot provide that much accommodation.
Kennedy says Braverman should investigate the profits being made. It is “shocking” how much is being made. And that is a choice by government.
Braverman says it is not a choice, but a duty.
Kennedy says not using local authorities is an ideological choice.
Braverman says 43% of the Windrush claims have now been concluded.
Lord Dholakia (Lib Dem) asks about progress towards paying compensation to Windrush victims.
Braverman says she is determined to settle this. She is “passionate” about resolving this. Compensation worth £59.85m has already been paid. And minimum payments have gone up from £250 to £10,000.
Lord Ricketts, the former head of the Foreign Office and former UK national security adviser, goes next.
He says the number of people allowed to stay in the UK as an adult dependent relative fell to zero in 2021. He says this means this path has effectively been closed off.
Braverman says the criteria for using this route is supposed to be very high. She says elderly dependent relatives pose a high cost to to the health service.
Kennedy asks why the government does not set up an independent process to consider asylum applications.
Braverman says this is an important function for government. Politicians need to be held to account for the way the system operates.
Kennedy says having an independent process would protect it from targets. She says people are under pressure to reach decisions without the full evidence.
Matthew Rycroft says there is no political interference in how individual decisions are taken.
Helena Kennedy (Lab) goes next. She says she has just chaired an inquiry into the asylum system in Scotland. Its report was very critical of the Home Office, she says. She urges Braverman to read it.
Fiona Shackleton, a Tory peer, goes next.
Q: How do you ensure that the best interests of child migrants are looked after? Children feel they have to go through the immigration system before they are treated as children. Immigration concerns trump children’s needs.
Braverman says the Home Office is under a duty to carry out its duties in a way the reflects the needs of children. She quotes the relevant legislation.
She says there is a “high number” of people who claim to be children who turn out to be adults.
Primarolo says Braverman told the home affairs committee in the Commons that caseworkers would need new training. How will that work?
Braverman says the government set the plan out last week. She wants caseworkers to triple their productivity. The number of caseworkers has doubled, and she wants to double it again.
Q: How will they be trained, and by whom? And what it the timescale?
Braverman passes this question to Matthew Rycroft. He says most of the training will be in-house. Senior people will train more junior ones.
He says rapid caseworking has been piloted at a hub in Leeds. They were aiming to get to four decisions a week. They managed to achieve that.
Q: Is this the model you announced earlier this year? Or is it a new system?
Rycroft says it will be an enhancement of what is already in place.
