§ Glenda JacksonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what sums have been made available to London boroughs to cover the additional costs of asylum seekers returning to London. [57632]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 20 May 2002]: The National Asylum Support Service (NASS) has not provided any funding to London boroughs to cover additional costs of asylum seekers returning to London from dispersal areas. NASS is responsible for meeting the direct costs of providing support to asylum seekers who are destitute. NASS is not responsible for providing funding for other services such as education and health. Asylum seekers returning to London can apply to NASS to change their support package from subsistence and accommodation to subsistence only. But asylum seekers could not, as a matter of routine, request that accommodation be provided in London. London is not a dispersal area. Accommodation will be provided in London only in exceptional circumstances.