HC Deb 27 February 2002 vol 380 c1381W
Shona McIsaac

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the proportion of the population of(a) North Lincolnshire and (b) North-east Lincolnshire who speak (i) Arabic, (ii) Hindi, (iii) Urdu, (iv) Farsi/Dari and (v) Pashtu. [34578]

Angela Eagle

I assume my hon. Friend's question relates to the potential site for an asylum seeker accommodation centre that has been identified in her constituency. Given the broad range of facilities which will be provided within the accommodation centres and the self-contained nature of the centres, there is not the same need to inquire into local language groups that existed with dispersal to cluster regions as the risk of asylum seekers becoming isolated is greatly reduced.

Information exists on the ethnic make-up of North Lincolnshire and North-east Lincolnshire from the last available census. It has been used previously to obtain information on ethnic communities within cluster areas and potential cluster areas within the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) regions.