§ Mr. SymsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the Government plan to spend from his Department's budget on asylum seekers in 1999–2000 and 2000–01. [115512]
§ Mrs. RocheResponsibility for the budget for supporting asylum seekers transferred to the Home Office from April 1999. It is anticipated that the total cost of operating the Immigration and Nationality Directorate and supporting asylum seekers for the financial year 1999–2000 will be in the region of around £800 million.
The Home Office has a provisional allocation of £300 million for supporting asylum seekers in 2000–01. Estimating support costs for 2000–01 is subject to a large number of variables such as the level of new applications, the speed of processing claims and the resources directed at processing cases and other work. Those estimates and the overall resourcing of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate are currently under review.