Refugees: Families
(asked on 19th December 2017) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have estimated the cost to public funds, and the impact on the availability of medical care, housing and education, of passing the Refugee (Family Reunion) Bill.
Answered by
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Annex 6 of the Impact Assessment for the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Order 2016 gives an estimate of the cost to the public purse of different migrant categories.
Table 14: Estimate of the typical public service costs associated with various migrants (2014/15)
| £ per head - Low case | £ per head - Central case | £ per head - High case | |
| All migrants | 5,300 | 7,000 | 8,800 |
| Non-EEA migrants | 5,400 | 7,100 | 8,900 |
| Migrant in last 10 years | 4,500 | 6,300 | 8,100 |
| Migrant in last 5 years | 4,300 | 4,300 | 4,300 |
| Non EEA - Those who came to work; | 5,300 | 7,100 | 8,800 |
| Non EEA - Those who came to study | 4,600 | 6,400 | 8,200 |
| Non EEA - Those who came for family reasons | 5,500 | 7,200 | 9,000 |
| Non EEA - Those who came as a dependant; | 5,400 | 7,100 | 8,900 |
| Non EEA - Those who came to seek asylum. | 5,700 | 7,500 | 9,200 |
Source: HO calculations based upon ONS mid-year population estimates (2014), HM Treasury's Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA), (2015:Table 5.2), and the Annual Population Survey (Jan-Dec 2013). Rounding: nearest £100
Under our existing family reunion policy, we have granted over 24,000 visas to nuclear family members of refugees in the last five years. We therefore believe that the impact of the Bill would increase the costs to the public purse significantly because it would widen the definition of a family member of a refugee and enable a large number of extended family members to qualify to come to the UK and have access to public services. The Government’s priority is to provide international protection to people who need it and extending the scope of family reunion to extended family members who may themselves not need international protection would not achieve that.