To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers (a) were referred to the National Asylum Support Service and (b) exited the National Asylum Support Service in each local authority area in the North East in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) 2008. (264323)

[holding answer 18 March 2009]: The National Asylum Support Service (NASS) no longer exists, although its functions continue to be exercised by the UK Border Agency.

Information on the number of asylum seekers that have applied for and exited support in each North East local authority area over a period is not collated centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Statistics on the numbers of asylum seekers in receipt of support at the end of the quarter are published in tables 5 and 6 of the quarterly bulletin Control of Immigration; these statistics are broken down by Government office region and local authority.

Copies of these publications are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration-asylum-stats.html

Further breakdowns by parliamentary constituency are available from the Library of the House.