PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Asylum: Syria (2 July 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what system is in place to regularly review the number of Syrian resettlement places in the UK as part of the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme in order to ensure the scheme is responsive to need.

Asked by:
Mark Pritchard (Conservative)

We launched the Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) scheme to help particularly
vulnerable displaced Syrians, for whom resettlement to the UK is the only
option. In particular, the programme prioritises survivors of torture and
violence, women and children at risk and those in need of medical care. We are
working closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
in the region to identify the exceptional cases whose needs are so profound
that they need to be resettled to a country like the UK. The scheme is
therefore based on need, rather than designed to meet set arrival projections.
However, we will continue to bring groups here on a regular basis, and envisage
that several hundred people will be helped over the next three years.

Answered by:
Dame Karen Bradley (Conservative)
14 July 2014