Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what expenditure her Department made and what funding it provided to the Scottish Government in 2015-16 for the provision to dispersed asylum seekers in Scotland of (a) health services and (b) civil legal advice and assistance and civil legal aid.
Health in Scotland is a devolved matter and therefore responsibility for funding would be with the Scottish Government. Legal aid in Scotland is the responsibility of the Scotland Legal Aid Board, an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government.
To ensure statutory duties are met, Home Office funds local migration partnerships to support inter-agency planning of central funded public services for asylum seekers. It also offers 'signposting', independent advice to asylum seekers so they can access health and legal aid, under a contract with Migrant Help. It is however, out with the jurisdiction of Home Office to directly fund health care and legal aid.