Written questions by Lowe.

What assessment her Department has made of the Migration Advisory Committee’s May 2024 recommendation that the Government improve data quality and transparency around the use of international recruitment agents in higher education; and whether her Department has considered adopting or endorsing the Agent Quality Framework for use by higher‑education providers.

The Home Office is taking steps to improve data quality and transparency regarding agents. From 7 April Student sponsors will be required to provide agent details on the Certificate of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) for all student applications where the sponsor has used an agent to recruit the student. From the same date, all sponsors will also be required to adhere to the Agent Quality Framework (AQF).Minimum academic, attendance and engagement requirements already apply to the Graduate route. Graduate applicants are required to have successfully completed an eligible qualification whilst holding permission on the Student route and student sponsors are required to comply with the Home Office’s academic engagement policy in relation to all sponsored students.As announced in the Immigration White Paper, from 1 January 2027 Graduates will be granted 18 months of permission instead of 2 years in recognition of the need for Graduates to transition into Graduate level jobs more quickly.

Whether the Government has undertaken a review of the data variables used for analytical purposes across the Student, Graduate and Skilled Worker visa routes, as recommended by the Migration Advisory Committee in its May 2024 rapid review of the Graduate Route.

The Home Office continues to invest in the development of its data and data systems to support insightful analysis of the immigration system.

Whether her Department has considered introducing minimum attendance or engagement requirements as part of the eligibility criteria for the Graduate Route in light of the Migration Advisory Committee’s findings on data quality and student engagement in its May 2024 rapid review.

The Home Office is taking steps to improve data quality and transparency regarding agents. From 7 April Student sponsors will be required to provide agent details on the Certificate of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) for all student applications where the sponsor has used an agent to recruit the student. From the same date, all sponsors will also be required to adhere to the Agent Quality Framework (AQF).Minimum academic, attendance and engagement requirements already apply to the Graduate route. Graduate applicants are required to have successfully completed an eligible qualification whilst holding permission on the Student route and student sponsors are required to comply with the Home Office’s academic engagement policy in relation to all sponsored students.As announced in the Immigration White Paper, from 1 January 2027 Graduates will be granted 18 months of permission instead of 2 years in recognition of the need for Graduates to transition into Graduate level jobs more quickly.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of social housing evictions involved households who had lived in the UK for (a) under 1 year, (b) 1–3 years, (c) 3–5 years, (d) 5–10 years, and (e) more than 10 years.

My Department does not hold the information requested.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of differences between local authorities in the qualification criteria used to determine access to social housing registers.

My Department commissioned a Systems-wide Evaluation of Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, which explored Social Housing Allocations and the use of qualification criteria used to determine access to social housing registers. The report can be found on gov.uk here.

How many and what proportion of people that entered the UK under the Gaza medical evacuation scheme have applied for asylum.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of people claiming asylum by nationality is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’, while data on the number of people claiming asylum in the UK by route of entry to the UK, and by latest category of leave prior to claim for those who entered on a visa or with other leave, is published in table Asy_D01a.The requested information on asylum claims from individuals who entered the UK under the Gaza medical evacuation scheme is not available from published statistics.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of households refused a homelessness duty were (a) UK nationals, (b) EU nationals and (c) non‑EU nationals, and what proportion were refused due to immigration‑related ineligibility.

The government publishes quarterly data on the number of households refused a homelessness duty, which you can access in Table A1 of the quarterly and annual statutory homelessness data published on gov.uk here. This data does not include the reason why a household was refused a duty.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of households in temporary accommodation were (a) UK nationals, (b) EU nationals and (c) non‑EU nationals.

MHCLG publish information on nationality of main applicants owed a homelessness duty. This is available in table A9 of our financial year datasets published on gov.uk here. We do not publish separate information on nationality of main applicants in Temporary Accommodation.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of social housing applications refused by local authorities related to households with (a) no recourse to public funds, (b) pre‑settled status without a qualifying right to reside, (c) temporary visas, (d) refugee status, (e) humanitarian protection, or (f) any other immigration status affecting eligibility.

My Department does not hold the information requested.

Communities and Local Government, whether the Department has considered collecting, or asking local authorities to collect, nationality data for all members of households allocated social housing, rather than only the lead tenant, to improve understanding of who is being housed and to support effective service planning.

Social housing lettings data collected through the Continuous Recording (CORE) system focuses on the "lead tenant" (or Household Reference Person) in order to create accurate, consistent, and manageable demographic profiles of households, rather than trying to track every individual member. My Department has no current plans to amend commonly record data collected through the CORE system.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of social housing applications from households newly eligible through (a) refugee status, (b) humanitarian protection, or (c) settled status were refused, and for what reasons.

My Department does not hold the information requested.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of households eligible for social housing were able to access a social home, and what proportion remained on waiting lists.

Information in respect of households on housing registers is collected as an aggregated snapshot by local authority on 31 March each year. As a result, individual households cannot be tracked, and it is not possible to calculate the proportions requested.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, how many new social housing lettings were made to (a) UK nationals, (b) EU nationals and (c) non‑EU nationals.

The number of new social housing lettings to households with UK, EU and non-EU national lead tenants in each year between 2020/21 and 2024/25 can be found in the ‘Social Housing Lettings’ statistics tables 3e and 3ei on gov.uk here.Available social housing lettings data is not broken down by the nationality of the lead tenant and household size.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of social housing tenants had lived in the UK for (a) under 1 year, (b) 1–3 years, (c) 3–5 years, (d) 5–10 years, and (e) more than 10 years.

My Department does not hold data on what proportion of social housing tenants have lived in the UK for any period of time.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of households added to social housing waiting lists had newly acquired eligibility through (a) refugee status, (b) humanitarian protection, (c) settled status, or (d) other immigration statuses conferring recourse to public funds.

My Department does not hold the information requested.

Communities and Local Government, how many households on local authority housing waiting lists in each of the past five years were (a) UK nationals, (b) EU nationals and (c) non‑EU nationals, and what proportion of each group had a recognised immigration status conferring eligibility for social housing.

Information on the nationality of the lead applicant of households on housing registers is collected on a voluntary basis in the Local Authority Housing Statistics (LAHS).Information is available for the past two years and is published in Section 6.7 of the Social Housing Lettings in England (tenants) statistical release. The 31 March 2024 snapshot can be found here and 31 March 2025 snapshot can be found here.Please note that the percentages presented in these reports should not be used to estimate the number of households on housing registers in England with particular characteristics due to the low response rate and insufficient coverage of these voluntary questions. As the data is collected on an aggregated basis it is not possible to provide information on where lead applicants hold multiple particular characteristics. Further detail about the low coverage is published in Section 4.3 of the LAHS technical notes here for the figures as at 31 March 2024 and here for the figures as at 31 March 2025.All lead applicants of households on housing registers are eligible for social housing. If a person’s visa means that they cannot access state benefits or local authority housing assistance, they would not be eligible to join a local authority's housing register.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of households on local authority housing waiting lists were (a) UK nationals, (b) EU nationals and (c) non‑EU nationals.

Information on the nationality of the lead applicant of households on housing registers is collected on a voluntary basis in the Local Authority Housing Statistics (LAHS).Information is available for the past two years and is published in Section 6.7 of the Social Housing Lettings in England (tenants) statistical release. The 31 March 2024 snapshot can be found here and 31 March 2025 snapshot can be found here.Please note that the percentages presented in these reports should not be used to estimate the number of households on housing registers in England with particular characteristics due to the low response rate and insufficient coverage of these voluntary questions. As the data is collected on an aggregated basis it is not possible to provide information on where lead applicants hold multiple particular characteristics. Further detail about the low coverage is published in Section 4.3 of the LAHS technical notes here for the figures as at 31 March 2024 and here for the figures as at 31 March 2025.All lead applicants of households on housing registers are eligible for social housing. If a person’s visa means that they cannot access state benefits or local authority housing assistance, they would not be eligible to join a local authority's housing register.

Communities and Local Government, for each of the past five years, what proportion of households in (a) new social housing lettings and (b) receipt of Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit held (i) refugee status, (ii) humanitarian protection, (iii) indefinite leave to remain, (iv) EU settled status, (v) EU pre‑settled status, (vi) family‑route visas with recourse to public funds, and (vii) any other immigration status conferring recourse to public funds.

Available social housing lettings data is not broken down by the nationality of the lead tenant and whether they are in receipt of housing-related benefits, or a lead tenant’s formal immigration status.The number of new social housing lettings allocated to households who self-report as refugees can be found in the ‘Social Housing Lettings’ statistics tables 3p and 3pi on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, how many households in (a) social housing lettings and (b) receipt of Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit in each of the past five years held (i) refugee status, (ii) humanitarian protection, (iii) indefinite leave to remain, (iv) EU settled status, (v) EU pre‑settled status, (vi) family‑route visas with recourse to public funds, and (vii) any other immigration status conferring recourse to public funds.

Available social housing lettings data is not broken down by the nationality of the lead tenant and whether they are in receipt of housing-related benefits, or a lead tenant’s formal immigration status.The number of new social housing lettings allocated to households who self-report as refugees can be found in the ‘Social Housing Lettings’ statistics tables 3p and 3pi on gov.uk here.

Communities and Local Government, how many people were housed through new social housing lettings in the most recent year for which data is available, broken down by (a) UK national lead tenants, (b) EU national lead tenants, and (c) non‑EU national lead tenants; and for each of these groups, how many people were housed in households of size (i) one person, (ii) two people, (iii) three people, (iv) four people, and (v) five or more people.

The number of new social housing lettings to households with UK, EU and non-EU national lead tenants in each year between 2020/21 and 2024/25 can be found in the ‘Social Housing Lettings’ statistics tables 3e and 3ei on gov.uk here.Available social housing lettings data is not broken down by the nationality of the lead tenant and household size.