Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Pursglove Excerpts

Monday 11th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Tom Pursglove (Corby) (Con)]

6. What support her Department is providing for local authority provision for unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

[The Minister for Immigration (James Brokenshire)]

The Home Office provides financial support to local authorities by meeting reasonable additional costs for those local authorities taking on responsibility for the care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The Immigration Bill will underpin arrangements to secure more equitable dispersal between local authorities.

[Tom Pursglove]

I thank the Minister for that answer, but given the number of cases where people over the age of 18 are pretending to be children, what can local authorities do to ensure that their limited resources are being best directed to very vulnerable children?

[James Brokenshire]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I also thank those in Northamptonshire for the work they are doing to deal with the pressures they have experienced and for the way in which they have approached this through the discussions and round-table meetings that have taken place. Clear age-assessment tests are undertaken to ensure that support is provided to those who require it and not to those who do not. Let me add that I will be writing to all local authorities this week with an update on progress on the national transfer scheme to aid the more equitable dispersal.