Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 14 January 2021 to question 136008, how much new community-based dispersal accommodation has been procured since the covid-19 lockdown announced in March 2020.

We take the welfare of those in our care very seriously. We provide asylum seekers in supported accommodation with safe, Covid-compliant accommodation along with free nutritious meals, all paid for by the taxpayer.

This includes providing asylum seekers with privacy and confidentiality as would be expected by those seeking sanctuary in the UK where it would be damaging for their identities to be revealed.

The Home Office therefore do not publish data on medical assessments relating to service users.

Procurement of accommodation was on hold due to constraints, availability and Local Authority pressures in relation to Covid 19.

We have established the Local Government Chief Executive Group (HOLGCEX) group to bring together senior representatives from Home Office, Local Government Association and local authorities with the aim of working in partnership to improve the asylum dispersal process for the people who use this service and the communities in which they reside.

We are trying to implement national structures across 150 LAs who will have a localised view and their own processes and practice. To allow us to better engage, we fund SMPs by region to enhance engagement. Furthermore, when procuring dispersed property there is a process to follow which includes consultation with LAs and statutory bodies.

We will continue our work through Home Office and Local Governments Chief Executives (HOLGCEX) group, and the Director and Deputy Director have been having 1 to 1 engagement with Chief Executives to discuss latest plans. We have also stood up a programme team to increase procurement across the UK, but we can only do so where Local Authorities agree we can procure in their area.