Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) financial and (b) other resources have been allocated to support the implementation of section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 in 2016-17.

The Government seeks to ensure the availability of funding and resources to deliver against its commitments.

At the height of the operation in Calais the UK had deployed over 200 Home Office staff, interpreters and social workers who visited the specialist centres in France to carry out the necessary assessments to determine whether it was in the best interests of the children to be transferred to the UK. We have also seconded an expert to Greece in addition to our long-standing secondee in Italy to support efforts to identify children who may qualify for transfer to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act and the Dublin Regulation.

The Home Office pays a national rate of £114 per day (£41,610 pa) for every UASC under the age of 16 and £91 per day for every UASC age 16 or 17 (£33,215 pa). These rates represent a 20% and 28% increase respectively on the previous rates. We also pay £200 per week (£10,400 pa) as a contribution towards leaving care costs for former UASC aged 18 and over who have leave to remain in the UK, this represents a 33% increase on the previous rate.

More broadly, the Government has established a £10 million Refugee Children Fund for Europe to support the needs of vulnerable refugee and migrant children arriving in Europe.