Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to ensure the monitoring of the (a) quality and (b) effectiveness of the housing provided under the new ten-year asylum contracts.

The forthcoming Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts, include clearly defined performance standards measured through a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) set within a wider Performance Management Regime (PMR) that will ensure the safety and wellbeing of all Service Users.

This will include ensuring that accommodation is ‘Safe’, ‘Habitable’, and ‘Fit for Purpose’ and is delivered in accordance with the Decent Home Standard, the Welsh Housing Quality Standard and the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. Accommodation providers will also be required to ensure that accommodation meets any other statutory housing standards which are applicable in the specified contract region and is compliant with any Local Authority licensing requirements whilst the property is used to accommodate Service Users.

A property inspection and audit process will form part of the Home Office’s contract compliance regime which will ensure that the required performance standards expected of all providers are met. Where inspected property does not meet the required standards, there are strict contractual time limits on resolving property defects; failure to meet those time limits could result in service credits being applied through financial deduction from monthly invoices. These will be monitored formally, on a monthly basis, at Contract Management meetings between the providers and representatives of UK Visas and Immigration.