Asylum
Home Department
Julian Huppert (Cambridge, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of expenditure contained in her Department's Spring Supplementary Estimate 2011-12 relates to asylum support; for what reason that expenditure is lower than originally forecast; and what proportion that expenditure is of reduced spending at the UK Border Agency.
Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
The asylum support budget for 2011-12 was £391 million, which is 4% of Home Office Resource DEL (departmental expenditure limit).
The supplementary estimate memorandum confirms that this budget was reduced during the course of the year, reflecting a lower than anticipated population of supported asylum seekers. The lower population reflects both a lower than anticipated intake of new asylum seekers and a higher level of cessations.
The UK Border Agency annual report will set out actual spend in 2011-12 in due course.