HC 235 Home Affairs Committee

Follow up to 16 July 2013 Home Affairs Select Committee evidence session on "the work of the Home Office".

Thank you for your letter of 22 July on Abu Qatada costs, asylum seekers’ right to work after 12 months and publication of the Drug Evaluation Strategy.

THE FINAL COST TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE ABU QATADA CASE

Further to my letter to you of 4 June 2013, I am writing to provide updated figures for the additional legal costs falling to HM Government as a result of pursuing Abu Qatada’s case through the courts since 2005.

Legal Aid	£647,658
HMG legal costs-domestic proceedings	£1,008,000
HMG legal costs-Strasbourg	£130, 018
Total	£1,785,676

The Legal Aid Agency has secured some £220,000 from Abu Qatada’s frozen assets as a contribution to the legal aid costs.

I should also note that the figures set out above are the· latest, but cannot yet be considered the final additional legal costs of the deportation case, since the Legal Aid Agency (who are responsible for Legal Aid) and Treasury Solicitors (who are responsible for collating HM Government’s domestic legal costs) may not yet have received and processed final bills from Abu Qatada’s and HM Government’s legal representatives respectively.

The Government’s policy on allowing asylum seekers to work if they have not had a decision within 12 months

As I stated in my evidence on 16 July, it is right that the policy on limiting asylum seekers’ permission to work should be maintained. Reducing the time limit on accessing the labour market from 12 to six months would risk abuse by economic migrants; and it would undermine our policy of prioritising access to employment and business opportunities for those lawfully present in the UK, or who are admitted to the UK under the immigration rules for employment or business.

I do not believe that widening the number of asylum applicants eligible for permission to work is justified in the current economic climate. Our policy has been designed to protect the resident labour market and ensure a clear distinction between economic migration and asylum.

In my evidence I referred to a court case regarding this policy. On 7 June 2013 the High Court upheld our position in the case of Rostami which found that we are entitled to limit access to the labour market in cases that have waited over 12 months for a decision. This is entirely consistent with our obligations under the UN Refugee Convention and the EU Reception Conditions Directive which sets out the minimum benefits and entitlements afforded to asylum seekers while they await a decision on their claim. It is right that we prioritise access to work for UK and EEA citizens over asylum seekers.

It remains our intention to decide asylum cases promptly-78% of adult applicants received an initial decision within six months in 201213. Asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute are given support and free, fully furnished and equipped housing while they wait for a decision on their claims. Those who have a genuine protection need are granted refugee status and have unlimited access to the labour market.

The ongoing work in evaluating the Government’s drug strategy and when that evaluation framework might be published

The Drug Strategy Evaluation Framework will be published alongside the second Drug Strategy Annual Review shortly. The Framework provides an overview of the approach to evaluating the Strategy including the approach to assessing costs and benefits; it does not contain any results or findings.

The evaluation itself will assess progress in achieving the two overarching aims of the Strategy, to "Reduce illicit and other harmful drug use" and to "Increase the numbers recovering from their dependence", using existing data. However, the evaluation is not just about measuring against a set of metrics. In line with the recommendation by the National Audit Office (NAO) and Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the main focus of the evaluation is to assess the value for money of government spend on tackling drug use. The evaluation will not be completed until the Strategy has run its course.

In the meantime work to support the evaluation has been ongoing, including, work to assess the costs and benefits of the different components of the strategy and new research projects such as the independent evaluation of the Payment by Results (PbR) drug and alcohol recovery pilots.

3 September 2013

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