Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on identifying non-hotel accommodation for Asylum seekers; and if she will provide a timetable for the decommissioning of hotel accommodation.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The enduring solution to this challenge is to stop the illegal, dangerous and unnecessary small boat crossings that are overwhelming our asylum system. Not only is every crossing attempt a potential tragedy, as we have seen far too often, but the people arriving via these small boats have travelled through, and have left, safe countries with fully functioning asylum systems to reach the UK.
We are taking a range of steps to reduce our dependency on hotels to support those already in the asylum system. All local authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales became an asylum dispersal area by default in April 2022. This is increasing the number of suitable properties that can be procured for destitute asylum seekers across the UK, ensuring a fair spread across the country and reducing our reliance on hotels. We also intend to bring forward a range of alternative sites, such as disused holiday parks, former student halls, and surplus military sites, to add thousands of places at half the cost of hotels.
The Home Office is tackling the asylum legacy caseload so that people can exit the system, either by returning to their home country, or granting them asylum so they can begin to make a contribution to the UK. The Home Office has already increased the number of its asylum caseworkers from 597 in 2019/20 to more than 1,000 today, and we are on course to add a further 500 caseworkers by March 2023. We are also improving the productivity of these decision-makers by re-engineering the caseworking process from top to bottom. This includes conducting more focused interviews and streamlining and digitising the caseworking process.
These reforms will speed up decision making, reduce the number of asylum seekers who are awaiting a decision and ease the pressure on local authorities by reducing our dependency on hotels and the number of asylum seekers accommodated in them.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with representatives of the OYO hotel group on housing for asylum seekers (a) in Great Yarmouth constituency and (b) nationwide.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Minister for Immigration set out in his recent “Dear Colleague” letter we are committed to engaging in advance with Local Authorities when we need to set up a contingency accommodation
Our Providers work with a number of providers of accommodation and discussions in relation to the provision of accommodation, including price, would be commercially sensitive. We would therefore be unable to disclose the details of such discussions.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of using hotels to house asylum seekers on local community cohesion.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide accommodation and other support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their application for asylum is being considered.
The significant increase in dangerous journeys across the Channel is placing unprecedented strain on our asylum system and it has made it necessary to continue to use hotels to accommodate some asylum seekers. The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation.
Community cohesion is an important aspect of using sites successfully and we would like to work with the Council and relevant stakeholders to understand and act to your concerns as appropriate. I would advise that the next multi agency meeting is used to raise these concerns and we can understand how to work collaboratively in managing this situation.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of using multiple hotels within close proximity to each other to house asylum seekers on local communities.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide accommodation and other support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their application for asylum is being considered.
The significant increase in dangerous journeys across the Channel is placing unprecedented strain on our asylum system and it has made it necessary to continue to use hotels to accommodate some asylum seekers. The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation.
Community cohesion is an important aspect of using sites successfully and we would like to work with the Council and relevant stakeholders to understand and act to your concerns as appropriate. I would advise that the next multi agency meeting is used to raise these concerns and we can understand how to work collaboratively in managing this situation.
Asked by: Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of using hotels to house asylum seekers in Great Yarmouth constituency on the tourism sector in that constituency.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide accommodation and other support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their application for asylum is being considered.
The significant increase in dangerous journeys across the Channel is placing unprecedented strain on our asylum system and it has made it necessary to continue to use hotels to accommodate some asylum seekers. The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation.
Community cohesion is an important aspect of using sites successfully and we would like to work with the Council and relevant stakeholders to understand and act to your concerns as appropriate. I would advise that the next multi agency meeting is used to raise these concerns and we can understand how to work collaboratively in managing this situation.