Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has received from Public Health England on policies for mitigating the spread of covid-19 amongst people living and working at the asylum seeker accommodation centre at Napier Barracks in Folkestone.

We are working closely with our providers, and with Public Health England, to ensure that all individuals who have to self-isolate can do so and are following all medical advice closely.

We take the welfare of those in our care extremely seriously and asylum seekers can contact the 24/7 helpline run by Migrant Help if they have any issues.

We do not publish the information requested, although the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support

At present the Home Office will continue to regularly move small numbers of people out of Napier barracks into Dispersal Accommodation in line with business as usual processes and will continue to route new people into Napier in line with public health guidance.

Those asylum seekers being moved to Dispersal Accommodation will not be moved to the other Ministry of Defence site currently in use (Penally Training Camp). This site is also providing temporary contingency accommodation for asylum seekers.