Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the VAT exemption on domestic renewables beyond March 2027.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

Installations of qualifying energy-saving materials in residential accommodation, and buildings used solely for a charitable purpose, benefit from a temporary VAT zero rate until March 2027. After that date, they will revert to the reduced rate of VAT at five per cent. This support is worth over £1 billion.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of people currently accommodated under sections 95, 98 or 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (a) entered the UK on a work, study or visitor visa and subsequently claimed asylum, (b) arrived by small boat, and (c) arrived by other unauthorised means in each of the last 12 months; and if she will publish this data by accommodation type, including hotels, dispersal accommodation, initial accommodation and large sites.

Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested on data linking asylum seekers' accommodation status with their route of entry is not currently published.

Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.

You may be interested to note that the Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on people claiming asylum by prior route is published in table Asy_D01a of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’. The latest data goes up to the year ending June 2026.

Data on Asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support by support type and accommodation type is published in table Asy_D09 of the ‘Asylum support detailed datasets’. Please note the figures reported represent the number of people in receipt of support at the end of the period, rather than the total supported throughout the period. The latest data goes up to as at 30 June 2026.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the potential financial impact of applying the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts service credit regime to (a) hotels, (b) MDP Wethersfield and (c) Napier Barracks.

Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)

There is currently no dedicated KPI regime in operation for hotels or the Wethersfield Large Site and performance-related penalties are not being applied. The Home Office ceased to use Napier Barracks in 2025.

While hotels do not form part of core contractual KPI regimes, Home Office assurance teams review performance and carry out inspections at properties to ensure appropriate standards are being met. The Department keeps supplier performance under regular review and applies contractual remedies in accordance with the terms of the relevant contracts.

Large Sites assurance is delivered through strong, hands-on operational oversight, grounded in on-site presence, observation, incident review and active engagement with Providers. This provides a high degree of real-time visibility and responsiveness and ensures that performance is managed closely both on site and on record keeping - any issues are identified early and addressed promptly with a clear governance and escalation structure.

The Home Office is in the process of developing a KPI framework for Large Sites which, once agreed with contracted Providers, will be implemented at Wethersfield and any other Large Sites which may be brought into the estate in the future.

Asylum accommodation contracts contain performance management arrangements, including service credits where appropriate, to incentivise contractual compliance. The Home Office does not publish commercially sensitive information relating to the operation of its contractual arrangements.

Publication of Legal Advice on Local Government Reorganisation

Seven-year anniversary of the mixed-aged couples’ rule