§ Mr. ColemanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much in total it has cost London authorities to support asylum seekers from the time when benefit was withdrawn to 31 January. [108796]
§ Mrs. RocheThe Home Office assumed responsibility for the budget for supporting asylum seekers in April 1999. This includes reimbursing costs, within unit cost and overall cash limits, incurred by local authorities for supporting asylum seekers under the National Assistance Act 1948 and the Children Acts. Responsibility for reimbursing local authorities by grant in respect of supporting asylum seekers previously rested with the Department of Health.
Information on the total cost of supporting asylum seekers through local authorities for the period in question is currently not available. But the Department of Health made grant payments to London boroughs of £66 million in 1997–98 and £161 million in 1998–99 in respect of costs incurred in supporting asylum seekers. The figure for 1996–97 is not available in the form requested and the figure for the period 1 April 1999 to 31 January 2000 is not yet known.
§ Mr. ColemanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the estimated total expenditure by London authorities on asylum seekers in 2000; and how much of this expenditure will not be covered by Government grants. [108795]
§ Mrs. RocheThe Home Office assumed responsibility for the budget for the costs of supporting asylum seekers in April 1999 and has a provisional allocation of322W £300 million for support for the financial year 2000–01. Estimates for the costs expected to be incurred in 2000–01 are currently under review.
Those costs are sensitive to a range of factors, including the number of asylum applications, the speed of processing and take up rates. For the London authorities, in respect of which an estimate of total expenditure on asylum seekers in 2000 is not available, a further factor will be the extent to which asylum seekers are dispersed to other locations.