Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the effect on the mental health of 18-year old asylum seekers of their transfer from social care to the National Asylum Support System.

There are no plans to make such an assessment.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in England are supported by local authorities under the Children Act 1989 and usually remain supported under the same legislation as “care leavers” after they turn 18 years of age.

The only circumstances in which they would transfer to the asylum support system administered by the Home Office is if they were supported by the local authority for less than 13 weeks before their 18^th birthday and their asylum claim or appeal was still outstanding.

Similar arrangements are in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.