Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugees have been supported through the Community Sponsorship scheme since that scheme was launched.

The number of people who have been resettled under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme is published in the quarterly Home Office immigration statistics. Since the scheme began in January 2014 a total of 4,414 people have been resettled in the UK to the end of September 2016. The figure includes those Syrians resettled with a community sponsor during this period. The refugees that we are bringing to the United Kingdom are very vulnerable people. Our prime concern is their safety and protection as they arrive in this country. We want to protect their privacy and ensure their recovery and integration, as they rebuild their lives in safe and secure surroundings, among supportive communities in the UK. We will, therefore, not be providing a running commentary on numbers that have been resettled with a community sponsor.