AQW 7420/16-21

Mr Mike Nesbitt
Ulster Unionist Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 18/11/2016
Answered On Date: 01/12/2016
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities for his assessment on Schedule 11 of the Immigration Act 2016; and its implications for Northern Ireland.

Answer:

I should explain that while the housing entitlement of non-British citizens is an excepted matter under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and therefore lies outside my Department’s remit, the Housing Executive has a contractual arrangement with the Home Office to provide accommodation for asylum seekers while their claims or appeals are being considered. The Home Secretary also has power under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to make arrangements with housing providers for the provision of temporary accommodation for persons whose claims for asylum have been refused.

Paragraph 3A of Schedule 2 to the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1983 provides that persons placed in accommodation provided by the Housing Executive under arrangements made with the Home Office, including arrangements made under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, are not secure tenants of the Executive. When Schedule 11 to the Immigration Act 2016 comes into operation it will repeal section 4 and create a new power for the Home Secretary to support failed asylum seekers and their dependants if they can demonstrate that they are destitute and that they face a genuine obstacle to leaving the UK at the point their appeal rights are exhausted. Consequential to the repeal of section 4, paragraph 2(b)(ii) of Schedule 11 to the Immigration Act 2016 provides for an amendment to paragraph 3A of Schedule 2 to the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1983 that would remove the redundant reference to section 4. The provision in paragraph 3A that a tenancy is not a secure tenancy will continue to apply to any accommodation provided under the Home Secretary’s powers to support asylum seekers and failed asylum seekers.

In the circumstances, Schedule 11 to the Immigration Act 2016 has no significant implications for those housing matters that are transferred to the Northern Ireland Assembly.