§ Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many applications have(a) been made and (b) been successful to the hard cases fund; and if he will make a statement; [66609]
(2) whether the hard cases fund used to support asylum seekers in exceptional circumstances is cash limited; and if he will make a statement; [66610]
(3) what a grant made under the hard cases fund consists of: and if he will make a statement. [66611]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 2 July 2002]Hard case support is provided under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. This allows the Secretary of State to provide, or arrange for the provision of, facilities for the accommodation of certain classes of person. It is policy to provide full board accommodation. There is no facility to make any subsistence payments. It is open to anyone who believes they have a case for support under section 4 to apply for it.
It is not possible to provide information on the number of applications received and accepted as this information is not routinely collected and to produce accurate figures would require a manual examination of all files held by the relevant section of the National Asylum Support Service (NASS). This could be done only at disproportionate cost.