§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason he has decided to withdraw Home Office funding from the Latchmere-Haslar project for refugees.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe Home Office has never provided core funding to the Latchmere-Haslar project. The payments made to it were exceptional and for one year and were intended to reflect the additional and transitional costs to the project arising from the transfer of detainees from Latchmere house to Haslar prison. The project's application last December for long-term core funding was turned down, on the grounds that the Government already make a substantial grant-in-aid to the United Kingdom Immigrants Advisory Service to provide advice and representation and that, with limited resources, departure from the established practice of funding a single organisation in this way was not justified. My right hon. Friend is considering that decision further in the light of a substantial number of representations which we have received.