Nottinghamshire County Council

Asylum and Migration · drafted 2026-07-02 · accepted · 4 finding(s)

← council-level findings on this theme

At Nottinghamshire County Council's first Full Council meeting after Reform took control (22 May 2025 County Council meeting, per Appendix A of the minutes), Reform councillor Sam Smith asked new Leader Mick Barton what county council powers the administration intended to deploy to reduce immigration, referencing a local Reform election leaflet's 'Stop the Boats' pledge and the council's statutory duty supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children; Barton's reply deferred any position, saying he was not yet briefed and would take time to determine the administration's stance -- no motion or formal position on asylum accommodation was adopted. [1][2][3]

A later Full Council meeting's question list included a further members' question 'regarding accommodation for asylum seekers' from Councillor Sam Smith to Leader Mick Barton, but the harvested minutes do not include the appendix with the written response, so no further stance beyond the fact a question was tabled can be confirmed from the corpus. [4]

The corpus surfaced no motion, cabinet decision or leader statement to cap, pause, suspend, refuse or withdraw from the National Transfer Scheme or Nottinghamshire's support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC); the only UASC-related content found is routine committee reporting of caseload and cost pressure. At the Children and Families Select Committee (13 October 2025), members queried an overspend in the cost of supporting UASC in care, and officers noted that Home Office funding for a UASC ceases at 18 but the Council continues to fund those already in placement -- both routine casework/finance items, not a decision to limit intake. [5][6]

A coverage gap limits this answer: at Full Council on 10 July 2025, a members' question from Councillor Sam Smith 'regarding accommodation for asylum seekers' to Leader Mick Barton went unanswered within the meeting's 60-minute question time and was deferred to a written response due within 15 working days, to be appended to the next Full Council papers -- but the harvested corpus (111 Nottinghamshire documents, of which only 2 carry parsed committee/date metadata) does not contain that written appendix, nor any Cabinet or Children's Services Committee papers that might record a formal NTS/UASC position, so an NTS-specific stance cannot be confirmed or ruled out beyond what is stated here. [7][8]

References (8)
  1. Document “This Council has a statutory responsibility to deal with the impacts of immigration, such as supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) who arrive in the area”
  2. Document “A local election leaflet for Reform UK in Mansfield included a pledge to: ‘Stop the Boats’.”
  3. Document “I am yet to be fully briefed on this critically important subject. I am sure you will appreciate that I will take time to determ ine our position with regard to where we are able to exercise discretion and what our legal requirements are.”
  4. Document “15) Councillor Sam Smith regarding accommodation for asylum seekers (Councillor Mick Barton to reply)”
  5. Document “Members asked for further information on the £0.4million overspend in the cost of supporting U naccompanied Asylum -Seeking Children (UASC) in care.”
  6. Document “The Home Office funding for UASC stopped when a child turned 18, therefore the Council continued to fund those children in placement.”
  7. Document “15) Councillor Sam Smith regarding accommodation for asylum seekers (Councillor Mick Barton to reply)”
  8. Document “The time limit of 60 minutes allowed for questions was reached before the following questions were asked. A written response to the questions would be provided to the Councillors who asked the questions within 15 working days of the meeting and be included in the papers for the next available Full Council meeting after the deadline.”