The government should set up emergency “Nightingale processing centres” to clear the asylum backlog and reduce the use of hotels, the Liberal Democrats have said.Lib Dem home affairs spokewoman Lisa Smart said her party would also increase the number of case workers processing asylum applications if it was in power.The party is focusing on law and order on the first day of its annual conference in Bournemouth.Smart is also calling for every police force in England and Wales to open counters in a wider range of venues such as supermarkets, shopping centres and libraries.In 2023, Sir Keir Starmer proposed the setting up of temporary “Nightingale courts” to speed up the processing of asylum claims but Labour has yet to follow through on the idea in government.The concept was born during the Covid lockdown when a network of seven Nightingale hospitals were quickly built or repurposed fom existing buildings – ready to cope with a surge in hospital admissions that threatened to swamp the NHS’s exiting facilities.The government has said it wants to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029 at the latest and is working to reduce the backlog of asylum claims.At the end of June 2025, around 70,500 asylum cases were pending an initial decision, down from 134,000 at the end of June 2023. according to official statistics.Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Smart said: “We want the government to call a national emergency, under the Civil Contingencies Act the powers are th …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe government should set up emergency “Nightingale processing centres” to clear the asylum backlog and reduce the use of hotels, the Liberal Democrats have said.Lib Dem home affairs spokewoman Lisa Smart said her party would also increase the number of case workers processing asylum applications if it was in power.The party is focusing on law and order on the first day of its annual conference in Bournemouth.Smart is also calling for every police force in England and Wales to open counters in a wider range of venues such as supermarkets, shopping centres and libraries.In 2023, Sir Keir Starmer proposed the setting up of temporary “Nightingale courts” to speed up the processing of asylum claims but Labour has yet to follow through on the idea in government.The concept was born during the Covid lockdown when a network of seven Nightingale hospitals were quickly built or repurposed fom existing buildings – ready to cope with a surge in hospital admissions that threatened to swamp the NHS’s exiting facilities.The government has said it wants to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029 at the latest and is working to reduce the backlog of asylum claims.At the end of June 2025, around 70,500 asylum cases were pending an initial decision, down from 134,000 at the end of June 2023. according to official statistics.Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Smart said: “We want the government to call a national emergency, under the Civil Contingencies Act the powers are th …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
