Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England in the last 12 months.

The asylum accommodation system is under enormous pressure because of the significant and sustained increase in asylum intake over the last 12 months and the build-up of the population as a result of Covid-19 related measures, which is placing unsustainable pressure on a limited number of local authorities. This has resulted in the Home Office having to source temporary contingency accommodation, such as hotels.

The use of hotel contingency is only ever a short-term solution and we are working with our accommodation providers to find appropriate dispersed accommodation across the United Kingdom to replace it.

The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support(opens in a new tab) Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 26 May 2022. The next quarterly figures are due to be released in August 2022.