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12.48 pm
Miss Kate Hoey (Vauxhall): Before I remark on the social security aspects of the Queen's Speech, I want to comment on guns, although I know that that subject will be more fully debated next week. I wanted to speak during the statements last week but was not called.
I have a strong concern arising from my borough where, in the past year alone, the police have been called out to 845 incidents involving guns--all of which were illegally held. I query how any action on guns that we take will do anything about illegally held weapons, which are the day-to-day danger facing my constituents.
In the controversial, emotional debate that we are to have on guns, it is important that we remember that the people--certainly those whom I know in my constituency--who shoot in rifle clubs and who attend pistol shooting are decent, honourable citizens who are going about their legal pleasure. We should not imply--as some hon. Members have, although they might not have meant to do so--that anyone who has been shooting in a gun club is a psychopath in waiting. We should get that message across clearly in the coming debate.
It strikes me as strange that the House could be attempting to stop a sport--pistol shooting--that is currently legal and that is and will be part of the Olympic
games. We might be preventing those who have endeavoured and worked hard to become part of an Olympic team from practising their sport. This morning, we heard of a woman who has spent a long time becoming an expert pistol shooter, but who might now have to move to Jersey to continue. In the understandable emotion resulting from Dunblane, it is important that we remember that what appears to be the easy solution might not always be the best.
As a member of the Select Committee on Social Security, I am delighted that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) said, the Secretary of State has, as usual, followed our lead, not only on the compensation recovery unit but on the question of fraud. My rignt hon. and hon. Friends and I welcome and want to strengthen the proposals dealing with fraud control, because the benefit system was designed to help those in greatest need and the poor. It is not right that some sections of society, whether individuals or gangs, should exploit it. I have not yet seen the relevant Bill, so it is difficult to comment in detail, but I hope that we shall adopt all the measures recommended in the Select Committee report.
The Secretary of State has not, however, followed the Select Committee's report on benefits for asylum seekers. The Secretary of State said that there would be a commitment to give local authorities help and support for the extra costs arising from changes in legislation dealing with asylum seekers. I want to give the House an account of some of the serious difficulties affecting some inner-London boroughs, especially the borough of Lambeth, as a consequence of the recent judgment on asylum seekers.
The judgment in the case of the four asylum seekers against the London boroughs of Lambeth, Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham was given on 8 October. As hon. Members will know, the three boroughs lost the case. The judge clearly found that the boroughs should offer support to the asylum seekers under the National Assistance Act 1948 on the ground that they were destitute. He found it impossible to believe that Parliament intended that asylum seekers
The judgment potentially has a wider significance, in relation to those people who fail the habitual residence test, but at the moment, as hon. Members know, there are
three different categories of asylum seekers. First, there are individual adults, such as the four adults who brought the case, who are usually fit and healthy and whom the local authority must now support under the National Assistance Act. Secondly, there are families with children, who, by reason of their destitution, are in need and must be supported under the Children Act 1989. Thirdly, there are unaccompanied refugee children, who must be supported under the Children Act.
Since mid-August, Lambeth social services has seen 250 units--either an individual or a family, as I have just defined. They have offered support to 109 units--70 families, 37 adults and two children, and that excludes children who are already in care. In August and September, applicants averaged 18 to 20 a week. However, on the day following the judgment, 9 October, 36 individuals--all single adults--arrived. By lunchtime on 10 October, 15 further people had applied. The borough estimates that, in the next few weeks, applicants may average 30 to 40 a day.
Where appropriate, people are offered housing--bed and breakfast arranged through the housing department and cross-charged to the social services department--and income support at 85 per cent. of its usual level. Expenditure on income support is currently about £4,500 a week and rising, and extra money is being sought for prescription charges, travel, and so on.
The social services department incurs other costs. Three additional social workers are hired from an agency at £500 a week each. There are the costs of transporting cash. There are the significant costs of Language Line--£3 to £5 a minute for interpretation--and the significant time of a team manager.
Lambeth was previously regarded as a local authority that mismanaged and had elements of corruption. I accepted all those allegations. All those problems have been tackled and the position is being turned around. I therefore strongly emphasise that Lambeth is not a soft touch. All applications are scrutinised in detail; many are rejected. Lambeth currently offers income support at a lower level than do other London boroughs. Additional expenses have so far been rejected, despite constant pressure from solicitors and from the Refugee Council, whose headquarters is in the London borough of Lambeth.
The Secretary of State will probably mention the two Government grants that are available. There is a grant to local authorities for unaccompanied children. However, we must spend £2 million before we qualify, which effectively means that no money will be available. There is a grant for children and families. Again, we must spend a large sum and we then receive only 80 per cent. of our expenditure above that figure. Lambeth is therefore obliged to subsidise the costs of asylum seekers significantly through the budget. There is no money for single adults.
Lambeth, Hammersmith and Fulham and Westminster have the most asylum seekers, as they were the initial targeted boroughs. We feel that the presence of the Refugee Council increases the number of asylum seekers who approach the borough of Lambeth. The Select Committee visited the Refugee Council a week or so ago and saw its wonderful work. We also visited the special day centre which has been set up in my constituency, just across the river.
The presence of the Refugee Council and other organisations has, however, increased pressure on Lambeth's budget. One or two nights spent in a local refugee centre is claimed as the "Lambeth connection". That also happens in boroughs such as that of the hon. Member for Southwark and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes). Lambeth social services department will probably spend £1 million to £2 million more this year. Westminster council estimates that it will spend a similar figure, rising to £7.7 million in 1997-98. Significant numbers of asylum seekers are also being accommodated by the housing department while they wait for their next asylum decision.
The concerns on this matter are, primarily, financial. The department already overspends its community care resources and faces major cuts. Such expenditure is simply not affordable. Other community services will have to be cut further, which will impact on hospital discharges. There is already great difficulty in getting people out of hospital if they have nowhere to go. Given that the housing department says that the stock of bed-and-breakfast accommodation will be exhausted within the next couple of weeks, the problem is extremely urgent. There will be repercussions on the community generally. Major cuts have already been made and will continue to be made in services for the disabled and elderly, while new services must be set aside for asylum seekers. That does not bode well for race relations, so it must be dealt with.
In practical terms, the department has few resources to dedicate to the task, especially as Lambeth has had to prepare, propose, consult on and implement significant cuts that must take place anyway. Moreover, the new centres must be agreed and resourced. Although the problem does not exist all over the country, it is severe in some parts of London and the Secretary of State must take action. The Government are responsible for helping with additional costs because the cumulative effect of asylum seekers on budgets such as Lambeth's, especially as all the current grants imply a local authority subsidy, is extremely serious. The Government must take urgent action to set up a resettlement centre to which all local authorities can refer applicants. That might avoid using the national assistance legislation and reduce numbers.
This problem will not go away and action is needed urgently. It cannot wait for an appeal. As the supply of bed-and-breakfast accommodation throughout London vanishes, local authorities will have to set up their own emergency shelters. Lambeth social services is already making contingency plans to reopen a closed elderly persons home in Streatham within the next two weeks. One can imagine the repercussions that that will have on the local community. I understand that Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham are taking similar action. Although local authorities can do some of the work, the Secretary of State is responsible for working closely with the Refugee Council to ensure that it directs asylum seekers all over London, not just to the boroughs which, for historical, geographical or community reasons, are targeted currently.
My constituency has 85 organisation headquarters and they all think that I am their Member of Parliament. Although that is correct in theory, in practice I cannot possibly be the Member of Parliament for all those headquarters, which range from those of important
national organisations to small local ones. The problem is that, because many people claim a local connection by staying in my borough with one of those organisations or their friends, Lambeth takes a much greater proportion than it should. Obviously, the borough must take its share, but certain boroughs take more than their fair share.
"should be left destitute, starving and at the risk of grave illness and even death"
and felt that, if it did, it should have said so clearly and repealed the parts of the Act that provided a safety net for people who were destitute. He went further in his judgment. He said that, if Parliament was clear that that was its intention, it would almost certainly put itself in breach of the Geneva convention. He was also clear that, although he had great sympathy with local authorities and the financial difficulties that would be caused by the judgment,
"if a duty exists, it must be performed".
The judgment has significant implications for social services in many London boroughs, but I shall describe the repercussions in the borough of Lambeth. The housing department no longer has the power to offer housing to asylum seekers, and they are entitled to no social security benefits. The social services department is therefore responsible for their housing, food and support and also, potentially, for necessary expenses such as prescription charges.
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