Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria is used in deciding the rate to be paid to local authorities for the care of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

We recognise local authorities undertake incredibly valuable work in looking after vulnerable young asylum seekers and the Home Office is committed to supporting this.

The Home Office provides funding to local authorities as a contribution to the costs they incur when supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), which is in addition to the money provided through the local government finance settlement.

The UASC funding review gathered evidence from over 50 local authorities and concluded in May 2019 with a significant increase in the funding: from 1 April 2019, local authorities now receive £114 per UASC per night for each UASC in their care, regardless of their age or when they entered the UK. This represents a 61% increase to the lowest rate that was previously paid. As well as providing a greater contribution to local authorities support costs, these changes addressed feedback from the review that the previous rate structure was overly complex.

Further consideration is being given to funding rates for local authorities supporting UASC and former UASC care leavers.