Member

Amendment 79C would require data drawn from different datasets across the Home Office to be produced showing asylum and refugee grants for those identified as victims of modern slavery. I genuinely understand the intention behind the amendment, because we have discussed this in Questions and in debates, but it is important to put on record that the quarterly national referral mechanism statistics on victim identification and the quarterly immigration statistics provide more than enough insight into the outputs of the respective systems. I will obviously keep published data under constant review, but I believe that imposing a duty as in the amendment proposed today to produce a new annual report would not be proportionate at this time. The published quarterly immigration statistics demonstrate that overall grant rates can vary for a number of reasons, including the mix of nationalities claiming asylum and the protection needs of those who claim asylum in the United Kingdom. My suggestion to the noble Baroness is that that information is available.