§ 1.—(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision requiring prescribed local authorities to provide support, during the interim period, to asylum-seekers and their dependants who are destitute.
§ (2) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1), in Northern Ireland, a Health and Social Services Board established under Article 16 of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 is to be treated as a local authority.
§ 2. The regulations must provide for the question whether a person is destitute to be determined by the local authority concerned.
§ 3. Subsections (3) and (5) to (8) of section 80 apply for the purposes of the regulations as they apply for the purposes of that section, but for the references in subsections (5) and (7) to the Secretary of State substitute references to the local authority concerned.
§ 4. The regulations may prescribe circumstances in which support for a destitute person—
- (a) must be provided; or
- (b) must or may be refused.
§ 5. The regulations may provide that support—
- (a) is to be provided in prescribed ways;
- (b) is not to be provided in prescribed ways.
§ 6. The regulations may make provision for—
- (a) the determination by the Secretary of State of the maximum number of asylum-seekers to whom a local authority is required under the regulations to provide support; and
- (b) the referral by one local authority to another of a claim for support made to it under the regulations if the referring authority is providing support to a number of asylum-seekers in excess of that maximum number.
§ 7.—(1) The regulations may make provision for the referral of a claim for support made to the Secretary of State to such prescribed local authority as he may specify in a direction.
§ (2) A direction may not specify a local authority which is providing support to a number of asylum-seekers in excess of the maximum number determined in accordance with provision made by virtue of paragraph 6(a).
§ (3) The regulations may make provision for the payment by the Secretary of State of any reasonable travel or subsistence expenses incurred as a result of a referral made by him as a result of provision made by virtue of sub-paragraph (1).
§ 8. The regulations may make provision requiring prescribed local authorities or other prescribed bodies to give reasonable assistance to local authorities providing support under the regulations.
§ 9. The regulations may make provision for the procedure for making and determining claims for support.
§ 10. The regulations may make provision for a person who has received, or is receiving, support from a local authority under any other prescribed enactment to be taken to have been accepted for support under the regulations by a prescribed local authority.
§ 11. A person entitled to claim support under the regulations is not entitled to claim support under any other prescribed enactment.