Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the contract, Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services, procurement reference CCTM22A01, what expenditure has been incurred on the booking of transport services for those who wish to travel beyond the local area.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Prior to receiving internal, Home Office Commercial approvals, to award this contract supplier performance was reviewed and due diligence was carried out. Necessary external approvals from Cabinet Office Spend Controls were also obtained prior to the contract award. The guidance for Cabinet Office Spend Controls applies to commercial activities costing £20 million or more, and is published on gov.uk at: Commercial spend controls (version 7) - GOV.UK.
The final contract signature was completed on 24 March 2023.
All Home Office contracts are procured in line with public sector procurement regulations. As part of these regulations, robust checks are carried out on suppliers’ ability to deliver the contract in question and, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary to exclude bidders in line with relevant regulations.
CCTM22A01 Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services Contract was a direct award under the CCS Travel and Venue Solutions Framework Agreement (RM6217) – Lot 2. CTM were the sole supplier within Lot 2.
Financial information cannot be provided in the granular detail requested.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the contract, Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services, procurement reference CCTM22A01, what the annual cost is of the requirement that transport requests will be taken at short notice, all day every day.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Prior to receiving internal, Home Office Commercial approvals, to award this contract supplier performance was reviewed and due diligence was carried out. Necessary external approvals from Cabinet Office Spend Controls were also obtained prior to the contract award. The guidance for Cabinet Office Spend Controls applies to commercial activities costing £20 million or more, and is published on gov.uk at: Commercial spend controls (version 7) - GOV.UK.
The final contract signature was completed on 24 March 2023.
All Home Office contracts are procured in line with public sector procurement regulations. As part of these regulations, robust checks are carried out on suppliers’ ability to deliver the contract in question and, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary to exclude bidders in line with relevant regulations.
CCTM22A01 Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services Contract was a direct award under the CCS Travel and Venue Solutions Framework Agreement (RM6217) – Lot 2. CTM were the sole supplier within Lot 2.
Financial information cannot be provided in the granular detail requested.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the contract, Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services, procurement reference CCTM22A01, what was the total number of contracts between the Department and Corporate Travel Management (North) Limited in the last ten years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Prior to receiving internal, Home Office Commercial approvals, to award this contract supplier performance was reviewed and due diligence was carried out. Necessary external approvals from Cabinet Office Spend Controls were also obtained prior to the contract award. The guidance for Cabinet Office Spend Controls applies to commercial activities costing £20 million or more, and is published on gov.uk at: Commercial spend controls (version 7) - GOV.UK.
The final contract signature was completed on 24 March 2023.
All Home Office contracts are procured in line with public sector procurement regulations. As part of these regulations, robust checks are carried out on suppliers’ ability to deliver the contract in question and, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary to exclude bidders in line with relevant regulations.
CCTM22A01 Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services Contract was a direct award under the CCS Travel and Venue Solutions Framework Agreement (RM6217) – Lot 2. CTM were the sole supplier within Lot 2.
Financial information cannot be provided in the granular detail requested.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the contract, Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services, procurement reference CCTM22A01, what the cost is of providing adequate transport links to enable service users to access the local area.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Prior to receiving internal, Home Office Commercial approvals, to award this contract supplier performance was reviewed and due diligence was carried out. Necessary external approvals from Cabinet Office Spend Controls were also obtained prior to the contract award. The guidance for Cabinet Office Spend Controls applies to commercial activities costing £20 million or more, and is published on gov.uk at: Commercial spend controls (version 7) - GOV.UK.
The final contract signature was completed on 24 March 2023.
All Home Office contracts are procured in line with public sector procurement regulations. As part of these regulations, robust checks are carried out on suppliers’ ability to deliver the contract in question and, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary to exclude bidders in line with relevant regulations.
CCTM22A01 Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services Contract was a direct award under the CCS Travel and Venue Solutions Framework Agreement (RM6217) – Lot 2. CTM were the sole supplier within Lot 2.
Financial information cannot be provided in the granular detail requested.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the contract, Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services, procurement reference CCTM22A01, what the annual cost is of delivering a programme of organised recreational activities.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Prior to receiving internal, Home Office Commercial approvals, to award this contract supplier performance was reviewed and due diligence was carried out. Necessary external approvals from Cabinet Office Spend Controls were also obtained prior to the contract award. The guidance for Cabinet Office Spend Controls applies to commercial activities costing £20 million or more, and is published on gov.uk at: Commercial spend controls (version 7) - GOV.UK.
The final contract signature was completed on 24 March 2023.
All Home Office contracts are procured in line with public sector procurement regulations. As part of these regulations, robust checks are carried out on suppliers’ ability to deliver the contract in question and, in certain circumstances, it may be necessary to exclude bidders in line with relevant regulations.
CCTM22A01 Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services Contract was a direct award under the CCS Travel and Venue Solutions Framework Agreement (RM6217) – Lot 2. CTM were the sole supplier within Lot 2.
Financial information cannot be provided in the granular detail requested.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the contract Support Payment Card, procurement reference 429018/148318, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of commercial confidentiality under that contract on provision of information to Parliament that helps facilitate scrutiny of value for money.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Support Payment Card contract was awarded to Prepaid Financial Services Limited (PFS) on 24 May 2020 as a Call-Off to Lot 2 (Prepaid Cards) of the RM 3828 Crown Commercial Services Framework Contract for the provision of the Support Payment Card Service.
PFS successfully secured a place on Lot 2 of the Framework Agreement along with four other suppliers. The Home Office determined which supplier could deliver the best value for money solution to the Home Office’s requirement. The evaluation considered both quality and price. Therefore, at the time of contract award, PFS’ solution offered the best value for money.
As these services were compliantly procured, and we undertake regular reviews of Supplier performance and assessments of financial and commercial data via established governance forums, value for money is scrutinised on an ongoing basis.
The risks of disclosing information that is considered confidential and commercially sensitive outweigh the benefits of disclosure. Release would impact on the Home Office’s ability to obtain maximum value for money for taxpayers. Disclosure of PFS’ commercially sensitive information could also impact upon their ability to compete for future services of this nature.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what Key Performance Indicators are commonly applied across asylum contracts.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
KPI schedules and performance measures are set out in the contracts which are available on Contracts Finder and can be found in the links below:
Wales - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract Wales - Contracts Finder
South - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract South - Contracts Finder
NW - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NW - Contracts Finder
MEE - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract MEE - Contracts Finder
NEYH - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NEYH - Contracts Finder
Scotland - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract Scotland - Contracts Finder
NI - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NI - Contracts Finder
CTM - CCTM22A01 Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services Contract - Contracts Finder
Asked by: Chris Murray (Labour - Edinburgh East and Musselburgh)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people currently held in immigration detention have received a positive Reasonable Grounds decision under the the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government has been clear that identifying and protecting victims of modern slavery is a priority for this government.
Obtaining the specific information requested regarding those in detention with a positive reasonable ground’s decision is not something that can be provided easily.
The government publishes regular statistics on the number of referrals into the system alongside the outcomes of those decisions. Those can be found on gov.uk – the most recent publication covering the period July-September 2025 show that the average time taken from referral to reasonable grounds decision was 6 days across both competent authorities.
Asked by: Chris Murray (Labour - Edinburgh East and Musselburgh)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the average time taken to make a Reasonable Grounds decision for people currently held in immigration detention.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government has been clear that identifying and protecting victims of modern slavery is a priority for this government.
Obtaining the specific information requested regarding those in detention with a positive reasonable ground’s decision is not something that can be provided easily.
The government publishes regular statistics on the number of referrals into the system alongside the outcomes of those decisions. Those can be found on gov.uk – the most recent publication covering the period July-September 2025 show that the average time taken from referral to reasonable grounds decision was 6 days across both competent authorities.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to contract “Support Payment Card”, procurement reference 429018/1483183, how many replacement cards were received; and what was the total cost to the public purse of the replacement.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The requested information is commercially sensitive.