Asylum applications backlog reaches record high of 175,457 – UK politics live | Politics

Rishi Sunak has announced that the international summit on artificial intelligence (AI) safety he is planning to host will take place in November at Bletchley Park, the site of the WW2 intelligence centre where the Enigma code was broken.

In a statement announcing the move, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said:

The major global event will take place on the 1st and 2nd November to consider the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of development, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action. Frontier AI models hold enormous potential to power economic growth, drive scientific progress and wider public benefits, while also posing potential safety risks if not developed responsibly.

To be hosted at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, a significant location in the history of computer science development and once the home of British Enigma codebreaking – it will see coordinated action to agree a set of rapid, targeted measures for furthering safety in global AI use.

Preparations for the summit are already in full flow, with Matt Clifford and Jonathan Black recently appointed as the prime minister’s representatives. Together they’ll spearhead talks and negotiations, as they rally leading AI nations and experts over the next three months to ensure the summit provides a platform for countries to work together on further developing a shared approach to agree the safety measures needed to mitigate the risks of AI.

The government says the UK has “strong credentials as a world leader in AI”. It explains:

The technology employs over 50,000 people, directly supports one of the prime minister’s five priorities by contributing £3.7bn to the economy, and is the birthplace of leading AI companies such as Google DeepMind. It has also invested more on AI safety research than any other nation, backing the creation of the Foundation Model Taskforce with an initial £100m.

The Home Office figures out today show there was a 78% increase in the number of people coming to the UK on work visas in the year ending in June this year. That included a 157% increase in the number of people coming on health and social care worker visas.

And these are from Prof Jonathan Portes, an economist and migration specialist, on the figures.

But the big picture is that the post-Brexit migration system continues to drive two shifts; from EU to non-EU migration; and from sectors which benefited from free movement, to sectors where workers qualify under the new system

Overall, this means migration is likely to be higher skilled and higher paid; but also less flexible, market-oriented and responsive to demand. The longer-term impact on the health of the UK economy remains uncertain

Most striking single data point is the continued very large numbers coming under the “Skilled Worker – Health and Social” route

Labour says Rishi Sunak’s failure to declare a relevant interest to a Commons committee (see 9.44am) shows why the rules need to be tightened. In a statement on the case, Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, said:

This is just further evidence that the system needs a full overhaul.

Despite his apology and repeated promises of change, Rishi Sunak recently ditched a key recommendation from parliament’s standards committee, which Labour supported, to tighten the rules around declaring interests and hospitality.

Labour will toughen up the system, increase transparency and introduce an independent ethics and integrity commission that will clean up our politics and restore standards to public life.

The Home Office figures out today also show that 71% of initial decisions on asylum applications in the year to June 2023 were grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave, PA Media reports. PA says:

This is “substantially higher” than in pre-pandemic years, when around a third of initial decisions were grants, the Home Office said.

The grant rate has been above 70% since 2021.

Before then, the previous high was in 1990, when it stood at 82%, although the volume of applications was much lower at that time.

Home Office figures show the backlog of asylum cases in the UK has hit a new record high, PA Media reports. PA says:

A total of 175,457 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2023, up 44% from 122,213 at the end of June 2022 and the highest figure since current records began in 2010.

The number of people waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 139,961 at the end of June, up 57% year-on-year from 89,231 and another record high.

There were 23,702 initial decisions made on asylum applications in the UK in the year to June 2023, up 61% on 14,730 in the year to June 2022. It is also above the 20,766 decisions made in the pre-pandemic calendar year of 2019.

Good morning. Rishi Sunak has apologised for inadvertently failing to declare an interest to the Commons liaison committee. As breaches of the code of conduct for MPs go, this is at the most minor end of the scale. But it is still embarrassing for someone who promised “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level” on the day he became prime minister. Sunak was trying to differentiate himself from his predecessor-but-one, Boris Johnson, who was notably deficient on all three measures.

Sunak’s apology came out late yesterday, after it emerged that Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, has published a 37-page dossier explaining how he had settled the complaint about Sunak via the rectification process. This is a system used to resolve minor complaints which he judges do not need to be referred to the Commons standards committee, normally because they involve minor and inadvertent breaches of the rule.

The complaint was triggered by the fact that Koru Kids, a childcare firm part owned by Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, is set to benefit from a funding measure in the budget. Sunak was questioned about this policy by the Labour MP Catherine McKinnell at the Commons liaison committee and, when she asked if the PM had anything to declare, Sunak replied: “No. All my disclosures are declared in the normal way.”

McKinnell wrote to the commissioner to ask if this was a breach of the Commons rule saying MPs must declare relevant interests in any parliamentary proceedings, including committee hearings.

After a lengthy investigation, Greenberg accepted that at the time of the hearing Sunak may not have been aware of his wife’s shareholding in Koru Kids. But he said Sunak had a duty to correct the record when he was fully aware of it, and he said that a subsequent letter to the committee saying that his interest had been “rightly declared to the Cabinet Office” did not go far enough.

Greenberg says that Sunak was “confused” because he had muddled the obligation to register interests (which, for ministers, can includes interests which do not get published) with the obligation to declare interests publicly (which covers interests that might be thought to influence action taken by MPs).

Greenberg says in his ruling:

I was satisfied that Mr Sunak had confused the concept of registration (whether in 25 the Register of Members’ Financial Interests or under separate arrangements made for Ministers) with the concept of declaration of interests under paragraph 6 of the Code and Chapter 2 of the Guide to the Rules relating to the Conduct of Members. I formed the view that the failure to declare arose out of this confusion and was accordingly inadvertent on the part of Mr Sunak.

And here is the apology from Sunak, sent to Greenberg on 5 July and published yesterday.

As we discussed at our meeting, I now understand that my letter to Sir Bernard [Jenkin, chair of the liaison committee] was not sufficiently expansive regarding declaration (as distinct from registration). That letter referred to media coverage of my wife’s minority shareholding and pointed to my (correct) registration of that interest under the Ministerial Code. On reflection, I accept your opinion that I should have used the letter to declare the interest explicitly.

I apologise for these inadvertent errors and confirm acceptance of your proposal for rectification.

I will be covering any reaction to this today.

Also today, we have asylum and immigration figures coming out from the Home Office, and Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, is speaking at an event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

It is also GCSE results day in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Mabel Banfield-Nwachi is covering them on a live blog.

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