Dawn Primarolo (Minister of State (Public Health), Department of Health) | Hansard source

The United Kingdom has international obligations which mean that anyone who has made a formal application for asylum in the UK under the 1951 United Nations Convention and its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees is entitled to free national health service health care for as long as that application, including appeals, is under consideration. The Government's approach is also in accordance with our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights on which there is extensive case law both domestic and from the European Court of Human Rights. The UK has also transposed into national legislation European Community Directive 2003/9/EC of 27 January 2003, which lays down minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers.

Our aim is also that asylum seekers who spend time in Border and Immigration Agency initial accommodation in England prior to dispersal should be offered Departmental funded health assessments and tuberculosis screening. This assists in identifying and addressing immediate health care needs through the use of trained health care staff and interpreters, and avoids duplication of questions and checks later by recording medical histories in a patient hand help record that the asylum seeker can keep with them.

There are no plans to withdraw free health care from asylum seekers. Consequently, no such consultations on withdrawing treatment have taken place, nor will steps be taken in relation to health care practitioners correctly providing asylum seekers with free medical treatment.

The cost of providing NHS health care to asylum seekers is not recorded. Therefore, it is not possible to provide that information.