Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the reliability of ANPR data in (a) preventing and (b) detecting (i) road traffic and (ii) wider criminal offences.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
ANPR is a valuable tool to help the police tackle crime and keep the road safe. We keep the effectiveness of police and law enforcement use of ANPR under regular review, to ensure it remains a robust tool for identifying vehicles of interest to the police and drivers who break the law. Reads in the National ANPR Service are usually accompanied by a close-up image of the number plate (plate patch) and an overview image of the vehicle to enable users to corroborate the data.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how inaccuracies in vehicle databases are accounted for when ANPR data is used in policing decisions.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
ANPR is a valuable tool to help the police tackle crime and keep the road safe. We keep the effectiveness of police and law enforcement use of ANPR under regular review, to ensure it remains a robust tool for identifying vehicles of interest to the police and drivers who break the law. Reads in the National ANPR Service are usually accompanied by a close-up image of the number plate (plate patch) and an overview image of the vehicle to enable users to corroborate the data.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department took in 2025 to help support scrutiny by (a) the Public Accounts Committee and (b) other hon. Members of the (i) costs and (ii) service content of asylum accommodation contracts; and whether any data was withheld.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has published details of the AASC contracts, including the Statement of Requirements which gives a detailed breakdown of all the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and to the standards we expect. Full details of this can be found here: http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2018-1112/AASC_-_Schedule_2_-_Statement_of_Requirements.pdf
Information on asylum expenditure is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts.
In addition, the Home Office and Ministers have provided written and oral evidence about asylum support and accommodation to the Home Affairs Select Committee and to the Public Accounts Committee - copies and transcripts are available from the Committees’ websites.
Data and information related to commercially sensitive information, performance management and other confidential aspects of the contracts and services are withheld to protect the commercial and legal position of the Home Office and its contracted Providers.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that new asylum seeker accommodation is equitably dispersed between the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The department operates a Full Dispersal model which works to ensure that asylum accommodation is equitably and fairly spread out across regions and nations of the United Kingdom, meaning that a small number of local authorities are not unduly burdened.
To facilitate this, we have developed Asylum Accommodation Plans in partnership with Local Government which set out our approach to the procurement and occupancy of Dispersal Accommodation across the UK.
The Plans are underpinned by an indexing model which weights three key overarching factors. Indexing provides a flexible, transparent evidence-based for the dispersal of the national asylum-seeking population to ensure equity remains at the core. The overarching factors are:
These three factors ensure the plans are evidence- based and strike a balance between equity and availability, as well as for the first time considering various pressures in local areas which we have worked on with The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The plans and indexing are reviewed regularly to ensure the plans are flexible to changing external factors.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on (a) food provision, by dietary requirement and (b) catering by (i) supplier and (ii) cost per person per day for migrants who arrived in the UK illegally who are housed in (A) hotels and (B) other accommodation sites in 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not report and hold data at this granularity and would only be obtainable at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on security provision at hotels and other accommodation sites housing migrants who arrived in the UK illegally by contractor, region, and cost per site in 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not report and hold data at this granularity and would only be obtainable at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on (a) laundry services, including contracted laundries, (b) on-site services and (c) reimbursements by (i) supplier and (ii) accommodation site type in 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not report and hold data at this granularity and would only be obtainable at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hotels and other accommodation sites were used for illegal migrant accommodation in 2025; and what the average occupancy was across those sites.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
At its peak under the previous government, around 400 hotels were used to accommodate asylum seekers – costing £9 million per day. That figure is now under 200 - the government remains committed no longer using hotels to accommodate asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament.
The Home Office does not publish data on the utilisation of asylum accommodation. We aim to utilise our estate as fully as possible, however, as with all types of accommodation properties may be temporarily vacant for a variety of operational reasons, including the need for maintenance or refurbishment work, or while awaiting allocation to new occupants following the departure of previous residents.
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including hotels, and by local authority can be found within the Asy_D11 tab for our most recent statistics release: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost was of providing accommodation in hotels and other contingency accommodation to illegal migrants in 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not report and hold data at this granularity, including by method of arrival, and would only be obtainable at disproportionate cost.
The Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract (AASC) Requirements below gives a detailed breakdown of all the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and to the standards we expect. Full details of this can be found here: http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2018-1112/AASC_-_Schedule_2_-_Statement_of_Requirements.pdf.
The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the: Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost was of services provided (a) within and (b) alongside hotel accommodation in 2025 by provider and contract.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not report and hold data at this granularity, including by method of arrival, and would only be obtainable at disproportionate cost.
The Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract (AASC) Requirements below gives a detailed breakdown of all the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and to the standards we expect. Full details of this can be found here: http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2018-1112/AASC_-_Schedule_2_-_Statement_of_Requirements.pdf.
The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the: Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.