To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase the number of Syrian refugees entering the UK.

The Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation (VPR) was launched in January 2014 to provide sanctuary in the UK for displaced Syrians who are most at risk. The scheme runs in parallel with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Syria Humanitarian Admission Programme. The VPR scheme is based on need rather than quota and we envisage that it will support several hundred people over three years. From the start of the scheme until the end of March 2015, 187 of the most vulnerable Syrians have been relocated to the UK. At the Global Security Forum on 19 June, the Prime Minister announced the scheme would be expanded to a greater number of vulnerable people who cannot be supported in the region.

The Government will also continue to consider Syrian asylum claims under our normal rules. Since the crisis began in 2011 the UK has granted asylum or other forms of leave to over 4,200 Syrian asylum seekers.