PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Refugees: Syria (12 October 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide information and data about the housing, health, and social needs of Syrian refugees to enable local authorities to plan for their arrival.

Asked by:
Mark Pritchard (Conservative)

We are working with local authorities to ensure that they are only asked to welcome Syrian refugees that their local structures are able to support. We are talking to them and other partners to ensure that capacity can be identified and the impact on those taking new cases can be managed in a fair and controlled way.

The Home Office alongside other departments and the Local Government Association will work with individual local authorities who are volunteering to take Syrian refugees. Currently when a referral is made to a Local Authority who has asked to participate in the scheme all relevant information on family make up, age and specific or medical needs is included in that referral so that the Local Authority can make an informed decision to accept or reject the individuals based on the specific needs.

Answered by:
Lord Harrington of Watford (Non-affiliated)
5 November 2015