Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of English lessons on the ability of refugees residing in hotels to integrate into the local community.

Councils with bridging hotels in their area have been commissioned by the Home Office to deliver hotel wraparound support to people on the Afghan resettlement schemes. As part of the wraparound support, Local Authorities should provide English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) support for residents to support integration and enable guests to move on to permanent accommodation and settle into new communities, access jobs and services.

Local Authorities who resettle families will also receive £850 for English language provision for adults requiring this support. This funding is available to Local Authorities who resettle families under the 3-year ACRS/ARAP scheme with effect from 1 September 2021.

Those over the age of 19 will have immediate access to funding through the Department for Education’s Adult Education Budget and be eligible for fully funded ESOL courses.

Additionally, DLUHC is supporting the Home Office to develop an integration package for the Afghan families, which includes a further 12-month support package for English (ESOL) of £850 per adult.