Scottish Government's expenditure on housing for asylum seekers, refugees, and irregular migrants: FOI release

Information requested

Details of the Scottish Government's expenditure on housing for migrants, including both legal migrants (such as refugees and those with granted asylum status) and irregular or undocumented migrants (such as asylum seekers whose claims are pending or refused); for the financial years 2020-2021 through 2024-2025, or the most recent available data if full details for 2024-2025 are not yet finalised.

Specifically, the following breakdown is requested where possible:

1. Total amount of funding allocated or spent by the Scottish Government on housing-related support for these groups, including any grants or funding provided to local authorities, third-sector organisations, or other partners under initiatives such as the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy.

2. A breakdown by category of migrant:

• Asylum seekers (those awaiting decisions on their claims).
• Refugees (those granted asylum or resettlement status, including under schemes like the Syrian VulnerablePersons Resettlement Programme or similar).
• Other legal migrants (e.g., those with humanitarian protection or other forms of leave to remain).
• Any support for irregular or undocumented migrants not covered above.

3. A further breakdown by:

• Type of housing support (e.g., temporary accommodation, social housing allocations, integration support leading to housing, homelessness prevention for these groups).
• Source of funding (e.g., Scottish Government budget, UK Government reimbursements, EU or other external funds if applicable).
• Geographic distribution (e.g., by local authority area, if available).
• Annual totals for each financial year.

If any of this information is held by the UK Home Office or another body rather than the Scottish Government (noting that asylum accommodation is primarily a reserved matter), provide any relevant data you do hold, such as funding passed through to Scottish entities, and advise on how to obtain the rest.

If providing this information would exceed the cost limit under the Act, please provide as much as possible within the limit and suggest how the request may be refined.

Response

Under current constitutional arrangements in the UK, asylum and immigration are matters reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes decisions relating to UK Visas and the operation of the UK asylum system, as you acknowledge in your request. The Scottish Government has no control over these processes, nor does the Scottish Government hold some of this information.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, some of the data that you have requested is the responsibility of organisations out with the Scottish Government and we therefore do not hold all the information relevant to your request.

Where the Scottish Government does not hold the requested information, formal notice is provided under section 17(1) of FOISA. In these instances, I will aim to signpost you to external bodies who may be able to provide the information you require.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. Where that is the case I will signpost you to information on publicly available websites. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

In answering your request, we have used the UK Government’s recognised definitions of the terms: people seeking asylum, refugees, and irregular migrants. For ease of reference, I have set these out below.

Person seeking asylum / asylum seeker	In the UK, the term person seeking asylum, or asylum seeker, refers to someone who has lodged an application for international protection under the United Nations (UN) 1951 Refugee Convention or Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and is waiting for a decision from the UK Government. An asylum application is therefore a process to determine whether someone is recognised as a refugee. The UK is a founding signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and the supporting 1967 Protocol, which set out international legal obligations to recognise refugees who are in the territory of a contracting state. People seeking asylum have applied to the UK Government to have their refugee status recognised, that is declaratory – they do not become a refugee because the UK Government grants them status, the UK recognises their status.
Refugee	The term ‘refugee’ has a specific meaning within international law, defined under the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. A refugee is a person who ‘owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country  of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality  and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.’ (1951 United Nations Refugee Convention). More information, including the full text of the 1951 UN Convention, is available from UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency): The 1951 Refugee Convention | UNHCR UK
Irregular Migrant	The UK Government uses the term ‘irregular migrant’ to refer to people who enter the UK by irregular means or who are present in the UK irregularly. People may enter the UK by a legal route and become irregular, e.g. if they overstay a visa, or may enter the UK irregularly but obtain ‘regular’ status, e.g. following a successful asylum application. People who have entered the UK irregularly and have not made an asylum application, would be undocumented and subject to immigration control. It may be helpful to explain that under reserved immigration legislation and rules people seeking asylum and irregular or undocumented migrants are subject to no recourse to public funds (NRPF). NRPF is also a standard visa condition; it restricts access to certain public funds as defined under the UK Immigration Rules, including local authority housing.

1. Total amount of funding allocated or spent by the Scottish Government on housing-related support for these groups, including any grants or funding provided to local authorities, thirdsector organisations, or other partners under initiatives such as the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy.

The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information, and therefore I am providing formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide an accurate figure for the total amount of funding allocated or spent by the Scottish Government on housing-related support for migrants. This is because the majority of grants and funding aimed at supporting these groups will support the provision of additional services beyond housing, or because funding and grants for housing-related support is not targeted at these groups and instead supports wider groups in Scotland.

For example, the vast majority of funding for local authorities is provided through a general revenue block grant. The Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently and the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, on the basis of local needs and priorities.

The Local Authorities block grant is not broken down by specific service area or by the immigration status of the individuals who may ultimately benefit from local authority services. As a result, the Scottish Government does not hold information on how much of this funding is allocated by local authorities to housing or homelessness support for particular migrant or immigration status groups, as these decisions and associated records are held at local authority level.

However, throughout this response, I have wherever possible provided a breakdown of various Scottish Government funding and spend relating to housing-related support for migrants.

2. A breakdown of funding by category of migrant:

1. People Seeking Asylum (those awaiting decisions on their claims).
2. Refugees (those granted asylum or resettlement status, including under schemes like the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Programme or similar).
3. Other legal migrants (e.g., those with humanitarian protection or other forms of leave to remain).
4. Any support for irregular or undocumented migrants not covered above.

The Scottish Government does not hold all of the requested information, and therefore I am providing formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA.

Scotland has a long history of welcoming people of all nationalities and faiths, including those seeking refuge and asylum from war and persecution. We are committed to supporting their integration into our communities and providing the safety and security they need as they begin to rebuild their lives.

In relation to people seeking asylum, asylum and immigration is reserved to the UK Government. The provision and funding for asylum accommodation and support across the UK is the responsibility of the Home Office. While the Scottish Government does provide limited housing-related support, which I will set out within this response, for more detailed information you may wish to contact the Home Office to find out whether there is any information which they would be able to provide. You can email their FOI team at foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk 

You may also find it useful to consult the UK Government website for information that the Home Office publishes online. The Home Office regularly publishes statistics relating to the UK immigration and asylum systems. These can be viewed on the UK Government website: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK

The Scottish Government does hold some of the information that you requested for those individuals and families fleeing the war in Ukraine. This data is broken down in Annex A.

Where the Scottish Government does hold information on the provision of funding for people seeking asylum and refugees, I have set that out in Annex B.

Additionally, the Scottish Government also provides support to victims of human trafficking which may include accommodation for individuals. This is because, under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, where there are reasonable grounds to believe that an adult is a victim of human trafficking or of slavery, servitude, and forced or compulsory labour, Scottish Ministers must secure the provision of support and assistance for the duration of the “relevant period” (currently 90 days), or until a conclusive determination is made as to whether the person is a victim, whichever comes earlier.

The figures below relate to Scottish Government spending on housing related support for victims of human trafficking and exploitation, covering financial years 2020-2021 through to 2024-2025.

2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24	2024/25
£112,9100	£431,811	£1,769,842	£2,894,452	£2,622,574

Total: £7,831,590.12

Support and assistance provided under the 2015 Act may include accommodation where this is assessed as necessary to meet the person’s needs. However, expenditure on this support is not disaggregated by immigration status. As such, we are unable to provide the specific breakdowns requested.

3. A further breakdown of funding by:

1. Type of housing support (e.g., temporary accommodation, social housing allocations, integration support leading to housing, homelessness prevention for these groups).

2. Source of funding (e.g., Scottish Government budget, UK Government reimbursements, EU or other external funds if applicable).

3. Geographic distribution (e.g., by local authority area, if available).

4. Annual totals for each financial year

Types of housing support

I set out previously the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending. As a result, the Scottish Government does not hold information on how much of this funding is allocated by local authorities to housing or homelessness support for particular migrant or immigration status groups, as these decisions and associated records are held at local authority level. Therefore, I am providing formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA.

The Scottish Government does hold some of this information broken down as you requested for those individuals and families fleeing the war in Ukraine. This is in Annex A.

Sources of Funding

In this response, we have provided information about funding provided by the Scottish Government. Some of the funding for people displaced from Ukraine is from the UK Government, and this breakdown is provided in Annex A.

Annex B also contains details of funding previously provided through an EU-funded project.

Geographic Distribution

As stated above, the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending means we are therefore unable to provide the geographic distribution as we do not hold this information. Therefore, I am providing formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202600500043 - Information released - Annex A & Annex B

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