Policy paper

Immigration and Asylum Bill: Overarching factsheet

Published 8 October 2026

What are we doing?

The Immigration and Asylum Bill will deliver key reforms announced by the Home Secretary in the Restoring Order and Control statement in November 2025.

It will seek to bring into force important changes to how the immigration and asylum system operates, reducing illegal arrivals and increasing the removals of those with no right to be here.

The bill will establish a new Independent Immigration Appeals Authority to create a swift and fair appeals system which can meet increased appeals demand. It will also bring about important reforms to the application of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Modern Slavery system, providing robust legal protections while tackling abuses of human rights law. The bill will establish a single core protection model for refugees and those requiring humanitarian protection, whilst ensuring that those with the means to provide a contribution towards the asylum support they received, do so when they are financially able to.

Most of the bill, relating to the reserved matters of immigration and asylum, will apply UK-wide. Amendments to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 will largely apply only to England and Wales, where the substance of the Act is reserved; some modern slavery reforms will also apply to Scotland and Northern Ireland, some of which may impact devolved areas.

The Home Office and officials in the Welsh Government, Scottish Government, and Northern Ireland Executive, continue to work together to ensure the approach to the extent of the measures (i.e. where the measures apply) is appropriate and that legislative consent motions are in place where needed.

Why are we legislating?

The current immigration and asylum system was never designed to deal with the sheer number of individuals that it is seeing today. Since 2021, over 460,000 people have claimed asylum in the UK.

The UK is an open, tolerant and generous country that celebrates diversity and wants those values reflected in its institutions – that has not, and will not, change. Membership of the ECHR has helped to deliver for the people of this country, underpinning key rights that we enjoy today.

But restoring control at our borders is vital for maintaining confidence in those values. The government has already cut almost £1 billion from the asylum bill, increased returns by 31 per cent in the 19 months since July 2024 compared with the 19 months previously and secured co-operation from a number of countries who had previously refused to take back those with no right to be in the UK so their nationals can be returned promptly. But the government must go further to restore order and control.

This bill will make the necessary legislative changes to bring the rest of the Restoring Order and Control statement into force: dealing with the appeals backlog, clarifying Parliament’s view of how article 8 rights should be balanced with the public interest in immigration control and deportations of foreign criminals and delivering end-to-end reform of the modern slavery system to ensure effective decision making and reduce the risk of exploitation. Only with these key reforms can the government build an immigration system fit for the modern world.

How will this bill achieve this?

The bill will:

• establish the Independent Immigration Appeals Authority to deliver a swift and fair appeals system that restores public confidence, can scale to meet changing demand and ensure cases flow through quickly to removal where appeals are unsuccessful. A single appeal route process will be established to ensure there is no advantage to bringing forward new claims or evidence piecemeal to frustrate the system
• define the application of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in line with Strasbourg jurisprudence, to prevent inconsistency that allows exploitation of the system and ensure that the public interest carries proper weight in immigration decisions
• reform the modern slavery legislative framework to clearly set out the government’s obligations enabling it to address improper use while maintaining essential protections. The measures will also embed provisions to ensure children are identified and supported more effectively, increase expectations on businesses to report on modern slavery in their supply chains and strengthen enforcement powers
• introduce a single definition of a protection claim, combining refugee status and humanitarian protection, thereby simplifying the decision making and the appeals process
• establish a mechanism to require asylum seekers receiving taxpayer-funded accommodation and other support to contribute to their costs of support once they are able to do so

Key statistics

Of the 86,000 people who have claimed asylum in the year ending June 2026, 40% (34,000) arrived in a small boat. A further 41% (35,000) arrived first by legal means, on a visa or with other leave, before claiming asylum. Around 17,000 arrived by other means. ^{[footnote 1]}

Around 93,300 asylum seekers are currently receiving state funded support, with the vast majority living in asylum accommodation. At its peak in 2023, there were 400 asylum hotels across the country, at a daily cost of £9 million, paid for by the taxpayer.

Around 229,000 people have received initial asylum decisions since July 2024. As a result, the number of people awaiting an initial decision is now 77% lower than the peak in June 2023, and 66% lower than in June 2024.

Alongside this, the appeals backlog has continued to increase rapidly (from 30,000 in June 2023 to 156,000 in June 2026), with current wait times for an appeal decision across all categories being 65 weeks as of June ^{[footnote 2]}.

Footnotes

1. Immigration system statistics data tables: Asylum    ↩

2. Tribunals statistics quarterly: January to March 2026 ↩