This House of Lords Library Briefing provides background information on the recent report from the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, An Inspection of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, ahead of a debate on this subject scheduled to take place on 7 June 2018.
Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration Report: An Inspection of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (349 KB , PDF)
On 7 June 2018, the House of Lords is scheduled to debate a motion moved by Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat) on the “report of the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, An Inspection of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme”.
On 8 May 2018, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) published a report entitled An Inspection of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. In it, David Bolt, the Chief Inspector, broadly praised the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) as “essentially effective”. However, Mr Bolt caveated his praise for the scheme by cautioning that the Home Office, which acts as a cross-government lead for the VPRS, “could do more to analyse and evaluate the various stages of the resettlement process, with a view to sharing ‘best practice’ and achieving greater consistency of treatment and outcomes”. In addition, Mr Bolt argued that there could be lessons to learn from an assessment of whether resettled refugees had successfully integrated, with any lessons potentially benefitting those still in the early stages of the resettlement process. Finally, Mr Bolt urged the Home Office to be aware of how its processes affected others, including partner bodies of the scheme.
The ICIBI report made seven recommendations in respect of the VPRS. Two of these, regarding use of refugees’ pre-departure time and mechanisms to remove policy misalignments across government, were accepted in full by the Government. The remaining five were partially accepted. These regarded staffing, data, ‘best practice’ and guidance, closer contact with local authorities, and communications. Mr Bolt has described the Government’s response as “disappointing”, arguing that it committed the Government to few, if any, actions, and disputed or rejected several of the report’s findings. As a result, Mr Bolt alleged that the Government appeared “closed to the idea that there is any room for improvement” in how the scheme was managed and operated.
This House of Lords Library Briefing provides background information on the VPRS. It then considers commentary on the report, before summarising the report’s seven recommendations and accompanying government responses. The Briefing concludes with a selection of recommended further reading.
Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration Report: An Inspection of the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (349 KB , PDF)
This briefing is the fifth of a series on the post-war history of the UK economy. The series proceeds decade-by-decade from the 1950s onwards, providing an overview of the key macroeconomic developments of each decade. This fifth briefing looks at the 1990s. In this decade the UK economy settled into a period of low inflation and steady growth; however, living standards growth was lower and more regionally concentrated than in previous decades.
While international attention has largely been focused on the Middle East and Ukraine, the civil war in Sudan continues. The UN has characterised the conflict as the “world’s largest hunger crisis”. As peace negotiations stall, concerns are rising not only for the people of Sudan but also about the conflict spreading to neighbouring states.
The Budget Responsibility Bill would require ministers to request an assessment from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for every major fiscal announcement and give the OBR the power to decide to publish one if the minister failed to request it. This follows the September 2022 ‘mini-budget’. The statement included plans that would have resulted in a projected £45bn reduction in tax income. It did not have an accompanying OBR assessment.
