Sir John Waite, co-chair of the commission and a former Appeal Court judge: "We heard worrying stories about the conditions being experienced by some asylum seekers, in particular the scale of the destitution ... The picture that emerged was one of people struggling to live."

- Asylum seekers are not economic migrants. The top ten refugee producing countries in 2006 all have poor human rights records or are places where war or conflict is ongoing.

- The UK is home to less than 3% of the world’s refugees – around 290,000 out of 8.4 million worldwide.

- We're not even in the top 15 of industrialised countries for asylum applications per capita (we were 16th in 2006).

- Asylum seekers do not jump the queue for council housing and they cannot choose where they live. The accommodation allocated to them is not paid for by the local council. It is nearly always "hard to let" properties, which other people do not want to live in.

The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of lunatics and the guardianship of infants. Its initial role was somewhat different, however; as an extension of the Lord Chancellor's role as Keeper of the King's Conscience, the Court was an administrative body primarily concerned with conscientious law.build a websiteit support