Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Angela Eagle and Tony Vaughan

Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Tony Vaughan (Folkestone and Hythe) (Lab)]

T3.   The National Audit Office recently raised serious concerns about the previous Government’s decision to buy poor-quality, expensive and contaminated asylum accommodation at Northeye. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that asylum accommodation is fit for purpose and represents value for money?

[The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Dame Angela Eagle)]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue. What the National Audit Office found in its report was not only an appalling process of decision making by members of the previous Government, but a grotesque waste of £15 million of taxpayers’ money—just like the waste of £60 million at RAF Scampton. In contrast, the new Government are determined to cut asylum accommodation costs by stepping up decision making, reducing the backlog—