Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding the Government provides to local authorities which are required to look after unaccompanied minors who are claiming asylum; and what costs that funding is intended to cover.

All local authorities receive funding via the Local Government Finance Settlement or finance arrangements which apply to the Devolved Administrations. Additionally, the Home Office provides a financial contribution to the costs incurred by local government supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) and former UASC care leavers.

Local authorities supporting the greatest number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children relative to their general child population receive a rate of £143 per night for each unaccompanied asylum-seeking child. This higher rate applies to local authorities supporting UASC totalling 0.07% or greater of their general child population. All other local authorities receive £114 per person per night for each unaccompanied asylum-seeking child in their care. All local authorities supporting former UASC care leavers receive £270 per person per week.

We have very recently launched a new funding pilot, on a fixed term basis. This pilot will look to provide additional funding to local authorities and their Northern Ireland equivalent to support the building of suitable infrastructure. The pilot consists of two stages, with the first stage introducing a new conditional lump sum payment of £15,000 to accompany the transfer of each unaccompanied asylum-seeking child and a conditional second stage that will only be offered if we have seen a significant reduction in occupancy in temporary accommodation.