§ Mr. Bestasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will give a breakdown of the skills and ages of Vietnamese refugees who have been accepted for permanent settlement in the United Kingdom;
(2) what information he has as to the number of Vietnamese refugees accepted for permanent settlement in the United Kingdom who are now living in local authority housing; and how many are homeless.
§ Mr. WaddingtonI have placed in the Library copies of a report by the Home Office research and planning unit on Vietnamese refugees (Research and Planning Unit Paper 13). Tables 2:1 and 3:19 in the report provide the best available information about the ages and skills of the Vietnamese received in this country, while table 3:3 gives the most recent information available about their housing situation. On 17 March 1983, 33 Vietnamese, 26 of whom only arrived in the country last month, were still in reception centres waiting for housing to become available.