Local authority funding for asylum and refugee homelessness: FOI release

Information requested

1. Total funding provided by the Scottish Government to local councils specifically for asylum seeker and refugee homelessness and support in the last three financial years.

2. Breakdown of this funding by council (especially Glasgow and Edinburgh).

3. Any conditions or ring-fencing attached to this funding.

Response

I enclose a copy in Excel format as requested of most of the information you requested.

You asked for funding provided by the Scottish Government to local councils specifically for asylum seeker and refugee homelessness and support. Immigration is a reserved matter and the provision and funding for asylum support across the UK is primarily the responsibility of the Home Office.

You may wish to contact the Home Office to find out whether there is any information which they would be able to provide regarding asylum seekers. You can email their FOI team at foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

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 has been to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. 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 at our end by specific service area or by the refugee status of the individuals who may ultimately benefit from local authority services. As a result, the Scottish Government does not hold complete information on how much of this funding is allocated by local authorities to support for particular refugee status groups, as these decisions and associated records are held at local authority level.

I can however provide you with some financial data on Scottish Government spend specifically on refugee support programmes made to local authority bodies.

The table attached totals funding allocated to refugee support programmes by the Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights directly to local authority bodies in Scotland across the timescale requested, as well as distribution of payments to local authorities relating to the provision of temporary accommodation for displaced Ukrainian nationals.

As requested, this data has been broken down further to individual local authorities.

As this is financial data it is aligned to financial year format, rather than calendar year, so for example “2025/26” would mean the period April 1st 2025 through March 31st 2026.

You also asked for “any conditions or ring-fencing” attached to this funding. Grant funding made by the Scottish Government is subject to controls and guidance outlined in the Scottish Public Finance Manual, which is issued by Scottish Ministers to provide guidance on the proper handling and reporting of public funds. I have provided a link to this below. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-public-finance-manual/grant-and-grant-in-aid/grantand-grant-in-aid/

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 202600517181 - Information Released - Table

File type

PDF

File size

235.7 kB