Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of direct funding to asylum dispersal local authorities in recognition of dispersal area status.

Local authorities receive funding for their costs of providing support to unaccompanied asylum seeking children.

However, they do not receive funding for adult asylum seekers and their dependants; this is because the costs of providing these individuals with any necessary accommodation and other support to cover their essential living needs are met by the Home Office. There are no plans to change these arrangements.