Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that all local authorities take in a fair share of asylum seekers.

The Government is committed to ensuring a more equitable distribution of asylum seekers across the UK. However, one needs to consider that not all asylum seekers receive Home Office support or accommodation while their claim is considered. The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 introduced the policy of national dispersal, designed to share the impact of supported asylum seekers across the whole of the UK. Since 2015, the Home Office has been working closely with local authorities across the UK to increase the number of areas that participate in the dispersal scheme; this activity has increased the number of dispersal areas by a third.