Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the Controlling Migration Fund has been spent to date; and what estimate they have made of when the total Fund will be spent.

The Controlling Migration Fund opened in November 2016 with the aim of easing pressures on local services linked to recent migration and providing targeted immigration enforcement activity.

Until 2020 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has contributed £100 million of funding, with the Home Office contributing £40 million worth of enforcement activity.

To date the MHCLG element of the fund has approved £73.6 million for projects covering tackling rogue landlords; building cohesion and integration within communities; supporting learning of English language; building capacity to support unaccompanied asylum seeking children; establishing Local Authority Asylum Support Liaison Officers to help new refugees transition from government-funded support into mainstream society and a Modern Day Slavery pilot in 6 local authorities to support the transition process of victims leaving safe houses.

The deadline for applications to the final round of the MHCLG element of the programme was 1 October last year. We received 149 bids from local authorities for the remaining £26.4 million of available funding. We hope to announce our decisions on these applications soon.