HC Deb 11 March 2003 vol 401 c199W
Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many local drop-in centres for asylum seekers there were in each of the last five years; and who provided the service. [102464]

Beverley Hughes

The information is not available in the precise format requested. As part of the new support arrangements which came into force on 3 April 2000 the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) has provided grant funding to six voluntary sector organisations to provide a network of one stop services for asylum seekers. The organisations are the Refugee Council; Refugee Action; Refugee Arrivals Project; Migrant Helpline; Welsh Refugee Council and Scottish Refugee Council. Between them they run 28 one stop services across the United Kingdom. We have no central record of other drop in centres which are not funded by NASS.

Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers are residing in Coventry; and how many have been placed in Coventry in the last three months. [101665]

Beverley Hughes

The information is not available in the form requested.

Information on the location of asylum seekers in the UK is currently linked to the support the asylum seeker receives. Asylum seekers in the UK either receive support from the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), local authorities or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), or are supporting themselves.

As at the end of December 2002, NASS was supporting 1,595 asylum seekers (including dependants) in accommodation in Coventry. A further 190 asylum seekers (including dependants) were receiving subsistence only support from NASS and were staying in Coventry.1

From grant claims sent to the Home Office by local authorities, as at the end of December 2002, there were 35 single asylum seekers and 20 asylum seeker families being supported by local authorities in Coventry.

The number of asylum seekers dispersed by NASS to Coventry over the past three months is not available.

Statistics on the number of asylum seekers supported by NASS in each local authority are available on the Home Office's Immigration and Asylum Statistics website: http:// www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigrationl.html

1 All figures have been rounded to the nearest five.