Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many councils have (a) ended their involvement in the voluntary national transfer scheme to take child refugees and (b) suspended involvement in the Dubs Scheme.

The National Transfer Scheme was launched on 1 July 2016 and has been working to ensure a fairer allocation of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) across the UK. A significant number of local authorities have participated in the scheme and enabled the transfer of children away from local authorities with a disproportionate number of UASC in their care.

The Government welcomes all offers from local authorities with capacity to look after unaccompanied asylum seeking children. We will continue to engage with local authorities across the country to encourage further participation. The Government will also utilise all offers to fulfil all of our existing commitments including the transfer of children to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016.