Written questions by Heylings.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that female asylum seekers who are victims of gender-based violence have access to (a) mental health support and (b) trauma-informed care.

This Government has set out our ambition to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, using every tool available to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.Recognising the mental health challenges faced by people seeking asylum the Home Office has a strategic team focussing on asylum seeker mental health working closely with accommodation providers, NGOs, health partners and lived experience groups to formulate a preventative approach.This approach consists of mental health and wellbeing grant funding that is disseminated across the UK through Strategic Migration Partnerships and the rollout of a trauma-informed practice programme.For further information on initiatives please see Asylum mental health: workstreams, tools and case studies (GOV.UK)

What steps she is taking to protect civil liberties.

The right to peaceful protest is fundamental to UK democracy but must be balanced with the need to maintain public safety. To achieve this, public order legislation has been developed that both safeguards freedoms of expression and assembly and upholds the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human RightsUltimately, operational decisions lie with the police, who are required to act lawfully and proportionately at all times.

Whether she is considering (a) transitional arrangements and (b) specific exemptions to future immigration reforms for current British National (Overseas) visa holders.

The Immigration White Paper, published on 12 May 2025, announced new measures on a wide range of issues, including indefinite leave to remain.This expansion of the Point-Based System will increase the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years.We will introduce reforms to expand the Points-Based System to both our settlement and citizenship rules, so they are based on contribution to the UK, with further details to be set out to Parliament by the end of the year.Individuals will have the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period to settlement and citizenship based on contributions to the UK economy and society.We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year and will provide further details at that stage.

Whether her Department's plans to extend the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain for skilled workers from 5 to 10 years will be applied to (a) prospective applicants only or (b) retrospectively to people already living in the UK.

The Immigration White Paper, published on 12 May 2025, announced new measures on a wide range of issues, including indefinite leave to remain.This expansion of the Point-Based System will increase the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years.We will introduce reforms to expand the Points-Based System to both our settlement and citizenship rules, so they are based on contribution to the UK, with further details to be set out to Parliament by the end of the year.Individuals will have the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period to settlement and citizenship based on contributions to the UK economy and society.We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year and will provide further details at that stage.

Whether the (a) five-year residency requirement for Indefinite Leave to Remain and (b) subsequent one-year period for naturalisation will remain in place for British National (Overseas) visa holders (i) retrospectively and (ii) prospectively.

The Immigration White Paper, published on 12 May 2025, announced new measures on a wide range of issues, including indefinite leave to remain.This expansion of the Point-Based System will increase the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years.We will introduce reforms to expand the Points-Based System to both our settlement and citizenship rules, so they are based on contribution to the UK, with further details to be set out to Parliament by the end of the year.Individuals will have the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period to settlement and citizenship based on contributions to the UK economy and society.We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year and will provide further details at that stage.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of making legislative changes allowing birth certificates issued with an error to be re-issued with the original detail amended, rather than retaining the original form with a correction note.

The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.

What steps she is taking to (a) tackle hate crime against LGBTQ+ people and (b) make LGBTQ+ related hate crime an aggravated offence.

All hate crimes, including those targeting LGBT+ people, are completely unacceptable and we back the police in taking strong action against the perpetrators of these appalling offences.We have committed to ensuring parity of protection for LGBT+ and disabled people under legislation and are currently considering the best way to move forward with this implementation of this commitment.The Government funds an online hate crime reporting portal, True Vision, designed so victims of all types of hate crime - including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We are also continuing to fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime, providing expert advice to police to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.

If she will formally apologise to Ali Kololo about the Metropolitan Police’s involvement in his overturned conviction.

The Metropolitan Police are operationally independent.