Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the criteria used by her Department to assess the cost of providing contingency accommodation for asylum seekers.

The rise in the number of small boat crossings has placed significant pressures on local authorities and the asylum system.

The Home Office is accommodating more than 37,000 asylum seekers in hotels at a cost of £5.6 million a day. The Home Office is working tirelessly, alongside other government departments, to reduce the Government’s dependency on hotels for contingency accommodation through a package of long-term and short-term measures.

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 at reduced cost to hotels.