Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost to the public purse has been of housing asylum seekers who have arrived on small boats in (a) hotels and (b) other locations since January 2020.

The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and subsistence support whilst their application for asylum is being considered.

Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation is published by the Government in table ASY D_11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Data on asylum support costs under the previous government are available in the Home Office Annual Report.