Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost to the public purse is of housing (a) owned and (b) rented by his Department for people seeking asylum.

Data on the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area and the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Costs are subject to change depending on numbers being accommodated within the asylum system. Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential. Therefore, the Home Office does not publish this information. However, 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).