Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers there were in (a) initial accommodation and (b) temporary hotel accommodation in each of the last five years.

Occupancy levels are recorded at a specific point in time and vary daily. The number of people flowing through (a) initial accommodation and (b) contingency hotel accommodation in any one year is not recorded.

Statistics relating to supported asylum seekers temporarily residing in contingency accommodation are published as Immigration Statistics under the S98 population tables. The latest publication (March 2022) can be found here Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), under the document Asylum seekers in receipt of support (second edition). The data published at the end of June have been recently removed and are being investigated. An update will be provided in the next Immigration Statistics release.

The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of these statistics which disaggregates the number of asylum seekers accommodated in specific accommodation. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.