Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that asylum seekers are not made homeless if new asylum accommodation and support contracts are not in place before the expiry of the current contracts.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The government will place the Entitlement to support under the forthcoming Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts(AASC) will be based on the same principles as COMPASS: this means that all ‘eligible Service Users’ in receipt of support at the point of transition will become the responsibility of the AASC Provider; including those who have received a positive or negative asylum decision and who have not yet reached the end of the 28 and 21 day notice period.
We are confident that there will be contracts in place, and we have a comprehensive transition plan. A contingency plan has also been designed, if needed, to ensure that service users will not be affected.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many bids were received by the Home Office for the asylum accommodation and support contracts to begin in 2019 in (a) the original procurement exercise and (b) the second procurement exercise.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract(AASC) response to invitation to tender from the Home Office received a total of 19 bids across all seven regions, of which 5 were in relation to the second procurement exercise.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the unique needs of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are met during integration into education, care and health services.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Local authorities have a statutory duty under the Children Act to ensure that they safeguard and promote the welfare of all children, regardless of their immigration status or nationality. Under these arrangements, unaccompanied asylum seeking children are assessed with regard to their individual needs and provided with access to education, accommodation, and psychological and health services, as would be provided to any other looked after child in the UK. They are also provided with a personal social worker. We work closely with Department for Education and local authorities to support effective access to, and delivery of, these services to this group of children.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what measures are in place to ensure that the receipt of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (a) incorporates young person-centred practice and (b) is efficient.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Home Office takes its responsibility for the welfare of children very seriously and immigration officials receive specific training on responding to children’s needs. As soon as possible after claiming asylum, identity details of unaccompanied children are registered and a welfare interview conducted to identify any safeguarding concerns. All unaccompanied asylum seeking children are referred to the local authority children’s services so that accommodation and welfare needs can be assessed and appropriate provision made. A referral is also made to the Refugee Council Children’s Panel which is an independent voluntary organisation funded by the Home Office to provide advice and guidance to unaccompanied children on the asylum process.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government takes to minimise the separation of peer and sibling groups among unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as part of the National Transfer Scheme.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The National Transfer Protocol, which provides guidance on the operation of the National Transfer Scheme and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/534258/Interim_National_UASC_transfer_protocol.pdf, sets out that a child’s best interests must be at the heart of transfer decisions. This will include taking account of an unaccompanied child’s peer and sibling groups and ensuring that unaccompanied children can maintain contact and, wherever possible, are placed in the same local authority area as their siblings.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether women are able to take refuge under domestic violence legislation if they continue to cohabit with their partner after the expiry of their initial leave to remain.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Destitute non-EEA nationals who have leave, or had leave, to enter or remain as a partner of a British citizen or person settled here and who claim to be victims of domestic abuse may apply under the provisions of the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession to access public funds, which may include access to refuges and multi agency support. This applies equally to those who are cohabiting with their partner and have valid leave to remain in the United Kingdom and those whose period of limited leave to enter or remain has expired.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of changes to the funding of English for speakers of other languages services on the ability of local authorities to provide access to English language classes to resettled Syrian refugees.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Learning English is a key factor in integration and is vital for gaining access to the employment market. Our experience is that most Syrians resettled under the programme are keen to learn English.
English language tuition is already provided as part of the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme (VPRS) and will be available for adults entering the UK under the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement scheme (VCRS). The recently announced additional £10 million of funding will increase the amount of training available for Syrian refugees resettled in the UK.
We will be working with local authorities to ensure that the funding is taken up in the most effective way, including providing funding for regional English Speakers of other languages (ESOL) co-ordinators to promote best practice, map provision, support authorities to commission services and coordinate volunteers. Many people across the country have also offered their time and support to help refugees improve English and integrate better into their community.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to provide additional financial assistance to local authorities to help support resettled Syrian refugees who have physical and mental health needs.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government has made available significant funding to support Syrians with physical and mental health needs who are resettled in the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.
In the first year after arrival in the UK, each individual attracts a standard tariff for healthcare costs and additional funding is in place to cover the costs of exceptional medical cases during that period. This is a substantial level of funding which will enable local authorities to support these vulnerable people as they rebuild their lives in safe and secure surroundings, among supportive communities in the UK.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether special case funding to meet exceptional needs costs of resettled Syrian refugees beyond their first year of resettlement in the UK will be included as part of the UK's Official Development Assistance contributions.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Official Development Assistance (ODA) can only be used to meet the first year post-arrival costs of each refugee, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) rules do not permit usage past the first year.
We do though have an additional exceptional needs sum of money, available from our years 2 to 5 funding, amounting to 15% of the total funding available each year.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to promote cooperation on the resettlement of Syrian refugees between local authorities with experience of resettlement programmes and local authorities without such experience.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Local authorities are already working together to provide support, ensure best value in the services they provide and to deliver efficiencies.
The Government will continue to provide local authorities with support and guidance including sharing resettlement best practice and case studies, detailed information on the cohort from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and advice about the cultural, ethnic and religious groupings from Syria.