The Home Office funds strategic migration partnerships which are local authority-led partnerships designed to provide structures and support services for those organisations working with migrants and refugees in local communities.

The Home Office also provides a dedicated integration loan directly to recognised refugees. The loan is designed to help refugees integrate into UK society by offering financial support towards housing costs, employment and training.

The Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme is voluntary and there has been a tremendous amount of goodwill from local authorities. Some of those authorities have not resettled people in the initial phases of the scheme, but will be resettling people in the future. We ask local authorities who have pledged their help be sure they have the infrastructure and support networks needed to ensure the appropriate care and integration of these refugees before telling us how many individuals they believe they are able to resettle. Once a local authority has pledged to resettle refugees – however many – we work with them to ensure there are suitable accommodation and care packages in place in that authority area in order for resettlement to take place. We will only place individuals in a particular area once we’ve ensured these arrangements are in place and will manage the flows based on need and in support of the wellbeing of the people and communities involved.

The UK has already committed to resettling 20,000 Syrian refugees from the region during this parliament and we have no plans to increase this at the present time. Our priorities are humanitarian aid and actively seeking an end to the conflict in Syria.

We believe this approach is the best way to ensure that the UK’s help has the greatest impact for the majority of refugees who remain in the region and their host countries. The government has been working with the Local Government Association, local authorities and devolved administrations across the UK in order to ensure we have the capacity and infrastructure to meet our commitment to resettle 20,000 vulnerable Syrians by the end of this Parliament.

The management of asylum claims and the protection of unaccompanied children in Calais is primarily a matter for the French authorities. A French non-government organisation, France Terre D'Asile (FDTA) has been charged with identifying isolated children with UK links. Both Governments are clear that unaccompanied children in Calais in need of protection should claim asylum in France. The UK will consider requests to take responsibility of an asylum application made in France, when lodged by a minor with close family connections in the UK, and both Governments are committed to ensuring such cases are prioritised. There has been intense cooperation between the UK and French authorities to improve the operation of the Dublin process. We have established a permanent official level contact group and we will shortly be seconding another UK expert to the French Interior Ministry. We have already made significant progress in speeding up the Dublin process. Since the beginning of the year over 120 children have been accepted for transfer from Europe under the family reunion provisions of Dublin, over 70 of whom were from France.

The Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Latest statistics published on 25 August confirmed that a total of a total of 2,898 Syrians have been resettled under the scheme since it began, 2,646 of these arriving since 1 October 2015.

We intend to resettle up to 20,000 Syrians in need of protection during this Parliament. We will continue to work closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify appropriate cases, prioritising the most vulnerable. The numbers resettled in a particular period will depend on a range of factors including the flow of referrals from UNHCR in the field and the availability of suitable accommodation and care packages in the UK. We will manage the flows based on need and in support of the wellbeing of the people and communities involved, rather than rushing to meet arbitrary targets. However, we are clear that we want to help as many people as we can as quickly as possible.

The Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Latest statistics published on 25 August confirmed that a total of a total of 2,898 Syrians have been resettled under the scheme since it began, 2,646 of these arriving since 1 October 2015.