Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Jackson of Peterborough Excerpts

Monday 5th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con)]

8. What steps she is taking to ensure that individual local authorities do not bear a disproportionate burden for supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Amber Rudd)]

In July the Government launched the national transfer scheme to ensure a more equitable distribution of unaccompanied asylum-seeking and refugee children across the country. The scheme is designed to support local authorities like Peterborough City Council. In support of the national transfer scheme we also increased central Government funding to local authorities caring for unaccompanied children by up to 33%.

[Mr Jackson]

Will my right hon. Friend reassure me that in areas such as Peterborough, which has already borne a major burden in both EU and non-EU migration, we will not be expected to pay once again for the huge ongoing costs of children and young people who are unaccompanied minors—we have 40 such cases in Peterborough—and that we will receive bespoke central Government funding?

[Amber Rudd]

I can reassure my hon. Friend that each child that his council looks after does attract additional funding, so I hope that that will address his particular financial concerns about the council’s obligations. I would like to put on record our grateful thanks to Peterborough Council, which does a fantastic and generous job in looking after some of these most needy children.