Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has undertaken an equality impact assessment of its policy on room sharing in asylum accommodation.

The Government expects the highest standards from our contractors and Providers are monitored closely to ensure they continue to meet these standards. There are strict criteria set out in the current asylum accommodation contracts around when room sharing can take place and who can share a room.

Providers must also comply with national and local housing regulations including advice from social services and primary and secondary care bodies on whether room sharing is inappropriate for individual cases and discussions about equality impacts form part of regular engagement with stakeholder groups.

The COMPASS contracts and their associated procurement exercise defined the required performance standards expected of all providers including sensitivity of equality impacts. Equality assessments with regard to room sharing elements of the contract have not been undertaken in isolation from wider contract tendering and management processes.