asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to Lady Cumberlege's answer that local authorities will receive help with the cost of asylum seekers for "80 per cent. of their unavoidable additional expenditure above a certain threshold" (H.L. Deb., 4th March, col. 7), what is the threshold to which Lady Cumberlege referred.

The threshold has not yet been determined. Necessary evidence about the scale of the possible expenditure by individual local authorities has been sought from the local authority associations. The special grant will be paid in arrears to local authorities on the basis of audited expenditure.