§ Mr. MalinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his plans to extend the interim regulations for the support of asylum seekers for another two years. [29834]
§ Angela Eagle[holding answer 24 January 2002]: Some asylum seekers fall to be supported by local authorities under the Asylum Support (Interim Provisions) Regulations 1999. These regulations came into force on 6 December 1999 and are due to end on 1 April 2002. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has decided that it would be appropriate to extend these regulations until 5 April 2004. This extension will enable Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) staff to complete the data matching exercise between its records and those held by local authorities. In addition during this time asylum seekers are to be issued with application registration cards. Once these two exercises have been completed we will have detailed information on the number of asylum seekers being supported by local authorities.
We can then discuss with the local authorities how best to transfer the cases to the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) system of support.