SCOTLAND is failing to take its"fair share" of asylum seekers, a Home Office minister has said.

In a heated exchange, in the Commons, Robert Jenrick said there was a "widening gulf between" the actions and rhetoric of the SNP administration.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government described the comments as "clearly nonsense."

The remarks came as the Tory immigration minister was pushed on Rishi Sunak's plan to massively overhaul decision-making at the Home Office and clear the asylum backlog by the end of 2023. 

Currently, there are 117,000 outstanding cases relating to 143,377 people.

The SNP's Alison Thewliss pointed to research by barrister Colin Yeo which showed that to get the backlog down to 20,000 cases or so, would mean making about 8,000 decisions per month.

Ms Thewliss told MPs: "In the year to September, only 16,400 decisions were made in total. So can the minister tells us precisely how he intends to meet his targets?"

Mr Jenrick said the government were going to "re-engineer the process."

He added: "We're hiring more decision makers, but it isn't just about people and resource, it's also ensuring the process is faster, less bureaucratic, that the guidance is cut and simplified.

"And if the honourable lady wants to help us with this issue, then perhaps she'll get on to her colleagues in the Scottish Government because today in Scotland, in contrast to the rest of the United Kingdom, only one city is pulling its fair share and taking asylum seekers and that is Glasgow.

"There's only a dozen hotels outside of Glasgow, in the whole of Scotland, that are taking asylum seekers.

"This isn't fair and equitable. So the honourable lady might sound pious, but her words and rhetoric are not matched by action from the Scottish Government."

The SNP politicians said local authorities were "reticent to take more because they know the UK Government isn't funding asylum seeker provision properly."

Ms Thewliss said council budgets were already pressed "due to another round of austerity coming down the road".

"He knows that just fine," she added. 

"But can he confirm that the Home Office is recruiting asylum decision makers from customer service and sales positions at McDonald's and Aldi who have no prior experience of the asylum system, are consulting Lonely Planet guides for knowledge about different countries and have been described being left to fend for themselves after two days to conduct complex interviews and make life or death decisions?

"Is that really an adequate way to conduct sensitive decision making?" she asked.

Mr Jenrick said he did not recognise the situation outlined in Ms Thewliss's question.

"The problem with the current system is that is too complicated and too bureaucratic.

"We want to simplify that, we want to speed up those decisions.

"We want to make sure the teams are more productive.

"But to come back to the first point that the honourable Lady made, the Scottish Government are refusing to take any of the asylum seekers who are arriving in the UK on small boats.

"That is not right. There is a widening gulf between the actions of the Scottish Government and their rhetoric, and I'd ask her to consider that."

During the session, Mr Jenruck claimed the UK was "full."

Tory MP Marco Longhi asked him to reconsider “the proposal for siting up to 144 illegal immigrants” into a hotel in Dudley North, his constituency.

Mr Jenrick replied: “As a result of the good work undertaken by the Home Office in recent weeks to ensure that Manston, the site in Kent is operating appropriately, we have now been able to implement some simple criteria, including risk to public order or disorder when choosing new hotels, and if there is compelling evidence in that regard then it should be taken into account by the Home Office, but there are no easy choices in this matter.

“The UK is essentially full, it is extremely hard to find new hotels or other forms of accommodation.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "These claims are clearly nonsense. Scotland has a strong track record in supporting people seeking asylum, despite the UK Government and Home Office’s ridiculous approach.

"For example, since the conflict in Ukraine started Scotland has welcomed the highest number of refugees from Ukraine per head in the UK – more, proportionately, than England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

"The Scottish Government’s Super Sponsor scheme has enabled more than 21,000 people to arrive in Scotland, representing around 20% of all UK arrivals.

"The Scottish Government supports the widening of asylum dispersal in principle, but believes participation by local authorities should be voluntary.

"The Home Office needs to improve partnership working and data and information sharing to support an effective asylum system and must work closely with COSLA and local authorities to agree plans to widen dispersal.

"The Scottish Government welcomes the positive step of funding for local authorities to encourage new participation and recognises the work of local authorities like Glasgow.

"Whilst this is a positive step, there needs to be a long-term commitment if it is going to make asylum dispersal more attractive and enable better support for people seeking asylum as well as local communities.”