Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to source additional appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers in Northern Ireland.

The current global pandemic along with high intake presented us with significant challenges when it comes to the provision of asylum accommodation, including sourcing sufficient suitable accommodation to meet demand.

The use of hotels and wider government facilities is a short-term measure and we are working with our accommodation providers to move people to longer-term dispersal accommodation as soon as it becomes available. The Home Office is working closely with our asylum accommodation provider Mears, Local Authorities and Strategic Migration Partnerships to increase the amount of accommodation available for asylum seekers in Northern Ireland so we can eliminate the need for the use of contingency accommodation.

The Northern Ireland Strategic Migration Partnership works with local statutory partners such as the NI Housing Executive to consider procurement referrals within Belfast, taking into consideration any local service pressures, and has additional established a sub group to progress the widening of procurement out with Belfast to support increased, sustainable and supported procurement with the relevant local partners.