Current status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 19 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what funding has been provided to the Scottish Refugee Council over the past five years; for what purpose, and what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of this funding.
To support work with refugees, people seeking asylum and local communities, the Scottish Government provides funding to organisations such as the Scottish Refugee Council to ensure that all people seeking refugee protection in Scotland are welcome, where women, children and men are protected, find safety and support, have their human rights and dignity respected and are able to achieve their full potential.
The following table contains a list of the funding the Scottish Government has provided to the Scottish Refugee Council since March 2020. It is a condition of all Scottish Government grants that recipients deliver the objectives set out in the grant offer letter. The funding below has been assessed through a combination of written and financial reporting and deemed to be effective.
Funding Title | Financial Year | Amount | Objective |
Annual funding to the previous non-statutory Scottish Guardianship Service 2018 to 2023 | 2019-2020 | £24,881.00 | To fund a guardianship service to provide specialist support to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. |
2020-2021 | £286,746.75 | ||
2021-2022 | £316,884.92 | ||
2022-2023 | £639,440.10 | ||
Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme 2019 to 2021 | 2019-2020 | £33,000.00 | To deliver housing related projects. |
2020-2021 | £132,000.00 | ||
Ending Homelessness Together 2020 | 2019-2020 | £90,236.18 | To work in partnership to provide specialist case managers, advice, advocacy and legal diagnostic advice and representation for asylum seekers at risk of destitution in Glasgow. |
Third Sector Homelessness Fund 2021 to 2023 | 2021-2022 | £121,964.00 | Delivery of Ending Homelessness for New Scots. |
2022-2023 | £122,575.10 | ||
Scottish Refugee Council COVID-19 focus groups 2021 | 2020-2021 | £431.42 | Ensure the voices of young people whose families are within the asylum process are included in focus groups around COVID Recovery. |
Warm Scottish Welcome Scheme, Ukraine Support 2022 to 2023 | 2022-2023 | £854,272.09 | To expand the Grantee’s core Refugee Integration Service for both the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine), including where the Scottish Government acts as super sponsor. |
Warm Scottish Welcome Scheme, Ukraine Support 2023 to 2024 | 2023-2024 | £1,150,174.00 | Provide support to displaced people from Ukraine, expand community capacity and work with practitioners and decision makers to inform the policy agenda. |
New Scots refugee integration strategy intermediary/strategic funding through Equality, Connected Communities and Mainstreaming and Inclusion Budgets between July 2019 and March 2024 | 2019-2020 | £133,500.00 | A reduction in discrimination and hate crime and an increase in community participation and cohesion. |
2020-2021 | £534,000.00 | ||
2021-2022 | £534,000.00 | ||
2022-2023 | £388,000.00 | ||
2023-2024 | £368,487.36 | ||
New Scots welcome video project December 2021 to March 2022 | 2021-2022 | £16,000.00 | To produce a series of videos welcoming those recently arrived in Scotland from Afghanistan to be published on the SRC website. |
Connected Communities Budget Funding – Engagement with Afghan women 2022 | 2021-2022 | £4,100.00 | To support community resilience in which diversity is understood and valued, people have stronger connections and are more respectful and inclusive. |
NRPF National Advocacy Service April 2022 to March 2024 | 2021-2022 | £171,697.00 | Delivery of a diagnostic legal advice service to those subject to NRPF. |
2022-2023 | £165,624.00 | ||
2023-2024 | £332,006.00 | ||
Support for Resettled Afghan Citizens | 2023-2024 | £40,000.00 | To establish a national network for Afghan community groups across Scotland, while engaging with major resettlement locations to form constituted groups. |
New Scots Partnership Costs | 2023-2024 | £87,333.00 | To work on completion of the first stage of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy refresh, ensuring ready for publication in Spring 2024. |
New Scots Community Engagement | 2023-2024 | £30,000.00 | To make funding available for community consultations across Scotland as part of the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy refresh, ensuring the strategy continues to be shaped by refugees and people seeking asylum. |
Refugee Support Service | 2024-2025 (to date) | £3,240,000.00 | Service helping forced migrants living in Scotland to improve their understanding of their rights, offering information, advice and advocacy on accessing these rights, so they can restore the social and economic independence needed to build a new life as part of Scottish society. |
Lived Experience on New Scots Core Group | 2024-2025 | £6,000.00 | Support involvement and participation of those with lived experience in the New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy. |