Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many properties have been bought by Serco for the purpose of housing asylum seekers in each parliamentary constituency in the Wigan local authority area; and how many asylum seekers have been housed in each such constituency.

Serco have bought no properties in Wigan as fulfilment of their contractual obligations with regard to accommodation demand is met entirely through the private rented sector.

The Home Office publishes quarterly data on the number of asylum seekers in Section 95 dispersal accommodation, by local authority. As part of the regional dispersal policy established in 2000, the advisory cluster limits set by the Home Office of 1 asylum seeker for every 200 of the settled population, apply to local authority area only. Data regarding the precise locations of asylum applicants cannot be provided at ward or constituency level as to do so would incur disproportionate costs and be precluded by the provisions of the Data Protection Act, given that individuals could reasonably be identified by such data.

In Q3 2015 there were 664 in dispersed accommodation in Wigan (Asylum Vol 4. Table 16q).

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-july-to-september-2015/asylum