Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland: statistics - May 2023

Background

This publication summarises the latest Scotland-level data and information on people displaced by the war in Ukraine arriving through the UK ‘Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme’, which includes those sponsored by the Scottish Government (also known as the Scottish super sponsor) and individual sponsors. This report gathers together various data sources, including operational data from welcome accommodation facilities and local authorities across Scotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Scottish Government. This data includes the number of displaced people from Ukraine that are in welcome accommodation, offers to host displaced people from Ukraine and, where applicable, the progress on matching displaced people from Ukraine with a host. This data will complement and be published alongside information on the numbers of applications, visas and arrivals of displaced people from Ukraine to Scotland and the other three UK nations, already regularly published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

This report accompanies the experimental statistics tables on the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme in Scotland.

This statistical release has been designated as new experimental statistics which has not been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority. Experimental statistics are official statistics that are newly developed or innovative, and are undergoing evaluation. 

This report provides data on visas, arrivals, offers to host, matches and accommodation. It is not a full account of all displaced people from Ukraine. Displaced people with visas are free to enter the country and live and work where they want. Not everyone entering the UK through the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (including those sponsored by the Scottish Government) will need accommodation provided to them. They may make their own arrangements, including renting their own accommodation or staying with friends and family. Some arrivals may have also self-matched with a volunteer host, assisted by a charity or support network. Those arrivals may never be in contact with a welcome hub or local authority seeking accommodation. We do not collect data on this subset of displaced people from Ukraine.

The Scottish Government are conducting ongoing operational data cleansing exercises and improvements to how data are recorded and reported, this is reflected in the designation of this release as experimental statistics. The data flows used to estimate the number of cases and individuals in case management and the number of cases matched through the national matching service (run by COSLA and the Scottish Government), as well as a local authority breakdown of individuals matched, are being upgraded and as a consequence these metrics are not available for this publication. You can find these data in the previous report published in February 2023 and we will publish an update to these figures as soon as we are able.

Acknowledgements

The Scottish Government would like to thank all local authority teams for their contributions to the Scottish Government Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme local authority survey and collaboration to ensure the data is up to date and as accurate as possible.

We would also like to recognise the extensive work undertaken by colleagues across all organisations involved in the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme.