Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what planning her Department has undertaken to provide contingency accommodation for asylum seekers beyond 2021.
As required by law, we provide asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute with accommodation, paid for by the taxpayer.
We welcome independent scrutiny and routinely facilitate inspections by the ICIBI or another relevant body.
The Department is responding to further preliminary enquiries made by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration but has not yet received a formal notice of inspection. Preliminary correspondence is not routinely published but the ICIBI may include relevant information in any final inspection report that is published on gov.uk.
The Home Office is currently reviewing the recommendations of the rapid review and, as previously stated, will seek to publish a summary of the recommendations.
Our ambition is to house asylum seekers within the asylum estate without the need for contingency accommodation. We are working to address the issues putting pressure on our asylum accommodation.