Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of housing asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of statistics which disaggregates asylum accommodation costs by type. The total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The government is determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly. This includes our accommodation sites, as we continue to identify a range of options to reduce the use of hotels. Additionally, the Government will be reviewing current Home Office arrangements to ensure efficiency and delivering value for money.

The number of asylum seekers in receipt of Section 95 support is published quarterly. At the end of quarter four 2003 published statistics indicate that there were 47,148 people housed in Dispersal Accommodation and a further 30,362 in receipt of subsistence only support. The geographical location of these supported asylum seekers was not published at that time. Since 2019 data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation has been published at Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)