Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the Syrian refugees planned to be taken in by the UK by 2020 will be located in each (a) constituent nation and region and (b) local authority area in the UK.

The Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme is voluntary and there has been a tremendous amount of goodwill from local authorities. Some of those authorities have not resettled people in the initial phases of the scheme, but will be resettling people in the future. We ask local authorities who have pledged their help be sure they have the infrastructure and support networks needed to ensure the appropriate care and integration of these refugees before telling us how many individuals they believe they are able to resettle. Once a local authority has pledged to resettle refugees – however many – we work with them to ensure there are suitable accommodation and care packages in place in that authority area in order for resettlement to take place. We will only place individuals in a particular area once we’ve ensured these arrangements are in place and will manage the flows based on need and in support of the wellbeing of the people and communities involved.