Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Written Statement of 3 July 2017, Official Report, WS 23, if the Government will increase the number of refugees to be resettled under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.

We remain committed to resettling 20,000 vulnerable refugees from Syria by 2020, as announced by the then Prime Minister in 2015. We are on track to deliver this commitment. We will continue to rely on UNHCR to identify and refer the most vulnerable refugees who have fled the Syrian conflict and cannot return to their country of origin, whatever their nationality.

Resettlement is only one strand of our efforts in the region, and is complemented by the UK’s significant humanitarian aid programme and our diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. We believe this approach is the best way to ensure that the UK’s help has the greatest impact for the majority of refugees who remain in the region and their host countries.