We have restored order to what was a huge backlog of cases, with a streamlined and stable caseload that can be processed quickly and efficiently, ensuring people spend less time awaiting an initial asylum decision.

At the end of June 2026 there were 40,168 people (relating to 32,401 cases) awaiting an initial decision, 56% less than at the end of June 2025 and the lowest level since June 2019.

The Home Office recognises the importance of a smooth transition for individuals leaving asylum accommodation following a positive asylum decision. We have deployed Asylum Move On Liaison Officers (AMLOs) across the UK, including in Glasgow and Aberdeenshire. AMLOs work with newly granted refugees, local authorities and partner organisations to support successful move on from asylum accommodation.

The Home Office continues to engage regularly with local authorities, Strategic Migration Partnerships and other stakeholders to understand local pressures and address issues raised by local partners.

To support local planning and preparedness, the Home Office shares the Discontinuation Prediction Tool (DPT) on a weekly basis. This provides a forward look of cases expected to enter the discontinuation process and the potential number of individuals who may seek support from local authorities following a positive asylum decision.

Following notification from the Home Office that a decision has been served, accommodation providers notify local authorities within two working days. The Home Office continues to work with accommodation providers to support consistent and timely notifications across all areas.

The steps we have already taken to streamline the asylum process and increase our efficiency are paying off and is an important achievement in building an asylum system that is efficient, sustainable and flexible.

Education is a devolved matter. As such, the Scottish Government is responsible for higher education (HE) policy in Scotland

The independent regulator of the English HE sector, the Office for Students (OfS), is responsible for monitoring the sector’s financial position. We work closely with the OfS to understand emerging issues and risks within the sector. As HE providers in England are independent of government, they are responsible for managing their own finances. All providers must continue to adapt their business models as necessary to safeguard their long-term financial sustainability.

Our world class HE sector rightly attracts students from across the globe, who positively impact our HE sector, economy, and society as a whole and become global ambassadors for the UK.

The UK government’s International Education Champion, Sir Steve Smith, is a member of the Scottish government’s International Education Strategy Governance Group and there are regular engagements between officials of both governments on matters pertaining to international students.

Education is a devolved matter. As such, the Scottish Government is responsible for higher education (HE) policy in Scotland

The independent regulator of the English HE sector, the Office for Students (OfS), is responsible for monitoring the sector’s financial position. We work closely with the OfS to understand emerging issues and risks within the sector. As HE providers in England are independent of government, they are responsible for managing their own finances. All providers must continue to adapt their business models as necessary to safeguard their long-term financial sustainability.

Our world class HE sector rightly attracts students from across the globe, who positively impact our HE sector, economy, and society as a whole and become global ambassadors for the UK.

The UK government’s International Education Champion, Sir Steve Smith, is a member of the Scottish government’s International Education Strategy Governance Group and there are regular engagements between officials of both governments on matters pertaining to international students.

Education is a devolved matter. As such, the Scottish Government is responsible for higher education (HE) policy in Scotland

The independent regulator of the English HE sector, the Office for Students (OfS), is responsible for monitoring the sector’s financial position. We work closely with the OfS to understand emerging issues and risks within the sector. As HE providers in England are independent of government, they are responsible for managing their own finances. All providers must continue to adapt their business models as necessary to safeguard their long-term financial sustainability.

Our world class HE sector rightly attracts students from across the globe, who positively impact our HE sector, economy, and society as a whole and become global ambassadors for the UK.

The UK government’s International Education Champion, Sir Steve Smith, is a member of the Scottish government’s International Education Strategy Governance Group and there are regular engagements between officials of both governments on matters pertaining to international students.

Education is a devolved matter. As such, the Scottish Government is responsible for higher education (HE) policy in Scotland

The independent regulator of the English HE sector, the Office for Students (OfS), is responsible for monitoring the sector’s financial position. We work closely with the OfS to understand emerging issues and risks within the sector. As HE providers in England are independent of government, they are responsible for managing their own finances. All providers must continue to adapt their business models as necessary to safeguard their long-term financial sustainability.

Our world class HE sector rightly attracts students from across the globe, who positively impact our HE sector, economy, and society as a whole and become global ambassadors for the UK.

The UK government’s International Education Champion, Sir Steve Smith, is a member of the Scottish government’s International Education Strategy Governance Group and there are regular engagements between officials of both governments on matters pertaining to international students.

The Immigration and Asylum Bill introduces the principle that, where a person has received taxpayer-funded asylum support and later becomes financially able to contribute towards those costs, it is right and fair that they should do so.

The detailed design of the scheme, including repayment thresholds and rates, will be set out in secondary legislation.

The policy intent is that repayment will only begin once an individual reaches a defined threshold for repayment and that deductions will be set at a manageable rate so that recovery remains proportionate and does not cause hardship or destitution.

Any regulations will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny and there will be clear safeguards to ensure the scheme operates fairly.

Draft regulations will be shared during the passage of the Immigration and Asylum Bill through Parliament.

The Home Office publishes data on extensions of stay as part of the Immigration System Statistics quarterly release. Data on the number of grants issued under the Graduate route since its introduction are published in table Exe_D01 of the Extensions detailed datasets. The latest data is available up to the end of June 2026.

These statistics relate to grants rather than unique individuals and, therefore, should not be interpreted as a direct count of people. However, they should provide a reasonable proxy for the number of individuals who have extended their stay in the UK under the Graduate route. The data can be broken down between main applicants and their dependants.

Migration Statistics are not currently aware of any estimates of the contribution of these individuals to the UK economy.

Regional migration schemes would create internal borders within the UK, which operates on a much smaller geographic scale to Canada or Australia and has fewer barriers to people relocating within it. The Migration Advisory Committee has looked at this issue many times and found the labour market needs of the different UK nations to be broadly similar.

Employment is a devolved matter and migration is only a small part of the labour market. However, our approach is to link migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policies, so that immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems in the UK. As such, the Devolved Governments are represented in our new Labour Market Evidence Group to take account of workforce needs in different areas of the UK.

Regional migration schemes would create internal borders within the UK, which operates on a much smaller geographic scale to Canada or Australia and has fewer barriers to people relocating within it. The Migration Advisory Committee has looked at this issue many times and found the labour market needs of the different UK nations to be broadly similar.

Employment is a devolved matter and migration is only a small part of the labour market. However, our approach is to link migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policies, so that immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems in the UK. As such, the Devolved Governments are represented in our new Labour Market Evidence Group to take account of workforce needs in different areas of the UK.

I am glad to see that SNP Members are staying classy, as usual. On the matter of personnel choices, I am not sure that my first go-to source would be the First Minister, because of course he appointed Peter Murrell to be the chief executive of the Scottish National party. [Interruption.] They do not like the answers to their questions, Mr Speaker!

On the SNP’s continuing obsession with independence, I simply say that this is surely a better time to focus on delivery. In May, nearly a third of patients in Scotland waited in A&E for more than the target of four hours, with a staggering 16,612 people waiting over eight hours and 6,978 people waiting more than 12 hours. That is the worst performance since records began. The SNP’s manifest failure on delivery is the elephant in the room—or should I say the camper van in the drive?

Still none.

We recognise that threat—we monitor hundreds of protests a year. In a democracy, people have to be able to make their case, but that should never tip into harassment, abuse or the type of disruption that the hon. Gentleman talks about. Our job is first to fix the system, and I hope that he will support us today in that venture, but we are clear that we will not accept harassment, intimidation or any type of prejudice.

As the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology laid out to the House on 18 March, we are taking forward four big strategic priorities—digital replicas, AI labelling, creative control and licensing—to get this right. No country in the world has been able to resolve this problem, but the UK is uniquely placed to try to resolve it. We want to work across the House and with both the tech and creative industries to get it right.

We are fully committed to implementing the measures that we announced last year, which will put fans back at the heart of live events, and eliminate industrial-scale ticket touting—it has been fleecing fans for far too long. We are working at pace to prepare the legislation and intend to publish a draft Bill in this parliamentary Session for pre-legislative scrutiny. That will allow us to draw on expertise from Parliament and across industry to ensure that our legislation is effective and enforceable.

It is important to lay out that it is a manifesto commitment—from the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State and all of us—to get that legislation through. It is incredibly popular legislation. We need to stop fans being ripped off by ticket touts, but it is important to get the legislation right. Given the complexity of what we are proposing, with a price cap, a cap in service fees, resale volume limits, strict legal obligations on the platforms, and strict enforcement, it has to be done right. If there are any loopholes or edges to the legislation, they will be exploited by ticket touts, who are already exploiting fans and the system. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will join us in trying to get the legislation right.

The hon. Gentleman is entirely right: I did fight Perth for Labour, although Perth fought back pretty effectively. I am fully aware of the contribution that the fair city of Perth makes to the economy of Scotland, and I am also very aware of the methodology that we have used, which is an objective basis on which to allocate British public funds.