Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 5 November 2025, to Question 86426, on Asylum: Housing, If she will publish a copy of the pre-procurement documentation sent to potential suppliers of asylum accommodation for the next round of contracts.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The pre-procurement documentation for the Future Asylum Contract Transformation Project will not be published.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 5 November 2025, to Question 86772, on Asylum: Housing, whether the Home Office holds an unpublished guidance or manual on assessing suitability.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer provided in PQ 86772.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of ending the use of asylum hotels on the use of dispersed accommodation in areas like Oldham; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of routinely publishing the number of properties procured for dispersed accommodation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has, since 2022, operated a system of Full Dispersal which works to ensure that asylum accommodation is spread equitably and fairly across the UK. Procurement of accommodation is driven by a set of evidence-based plans, which are refreshed every six months with Local Government, and which consider a range of factors, including the availability of housing, pressure on services and community cohesion, to ensure that no one area is overburdened.
Data, published quarterly, on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including accommodation type, and broken down into Local Authority area, can be found within the Asy_D11 tab of our most recent statistics release.
Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (opens in a new tab).
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2025, to Question 86342, whether there is an internal document that sets out her Department's new accommodation strategy.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Prime Minister has been clear he wants every asylum hotel closed by the end of this Parliament. In delivering that, every Department has been asked to look at what more it can do. Accordingly, we are reviewing the long-term strategy to reflect the work to exit hotels.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish a copy of the current version of the Home Office guidance entitled Hotel Contingency Asylum Accommodation: Local authority version.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Hotel Contingency Asylum Accommodation is procured under the Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC). The AASC are published and set out our requirements for the sourcing and procurement of accommodation, including how providers should work and consult with local authorities on a range of issues, from pressure on services, to security and the impact on the wider community.
You can find information about specific Home Office contracts using the Contracts Finder, which can be found here: Contracts Finder - gov.uk(opens in a new tab).
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 5 November 2025, to Question 85954, on Asylum: Housing, whether there is a guidance document that the Department follows when reviewing and considering a local authority objection.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer provided in PQ 85954.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase the level of prosecutions for immigration-related offences.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Prosecutions themselves are a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 provides an array of new and stronger powers for law enforcement agencies to prevent organised immigration crime and bring further prosecutions against immigration related offences. These powers will, for example, make it a criminal offence to put lives in danger during a small boat crossing and will allow law enforcement to intercept smuggling gangs’ criminal activity earlier on in the investigations process. The Crown Prosecution Service has welcomed the package of new offences as it equips prosecutors with another tool to fight organised immigration crime, especially those involving dangerous Channel crossings.
The full Act can be found at legislation.co.uk: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/31/part/3/enacted and part 3 provides for ‘Offences relating to things for use in serious crime’.
Statistics published last week show there has been a 33% surge in smuggling arrests, convictions and seizures of criminal cash and assets over the last 12 months. More information on this can be read at What is being done to stop organised immigration crime? - GOV.UK
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the current level of conviction and sentencing patterns for immigration offences on immigration enforcement policy.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Statistics published last week show there has been a 33% surge in smuggling arrests, convictions and seizures of criminal cash and assets over the last 12 months. What is being done to stop organised immigration crime? - GOV.UK
To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication. Information about convictions of immigration offences is not available in our published data. Our published national data on enforcement activity is available at the following link and includes data on detected irregular arrivals to the UK Immigration system statistics, year ending June 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of measures to deter small boat crossings in the English Channel.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s Plan for Change sets out our ambition to secure borders and control immigration. We are committed to tackling illegal migration and the criminal networks behind it.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 has now received Royal Assent and the overarching impact assessment for this can be found here:
The Government is continuously monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of our measures in place to tackle small boats. As stated in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, the Border Security Command will be publishing an annual report, which must state the Commander’s views on the performance in the financial year of the border security system. This is set out in the Act here:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/31/section/4/enacted
Border security is fundamental to both our national security and economic security and evaluating our approach is a critical part of that.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve border security technology at ports of entry.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Immigration White Paper, published in May 2025, sets out a range of measures to transform the border, including using technology to maintain security at ports of entry.
The introduction of a ‘universal permission to travel’ requirement means that we know more about everyone wishing to travel to the UK including Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) and eVisa holders. This will allow for more interventions to take place upstream, with enhanced data and intelligent technologies also being used to target interventions on arrival, as well as using facial comparison technology to deliver consistent identity verification. We are currently reviewing the findings of a contactless eGate pilot and will announce further information on its implementation in due course.