Asylum: Housing

(asked on 9th October 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the likelihood of delays to the mobilization period for the new asylum accommodation and support services contracts in (a) the North East, (b) the Yorkshire and Humber and (c) Northern Ireland where compliant bids were not received in round one of the tendering process; and what arrangements have been put in place for housing asylum seekers in the transition period.


Answered by
Caroline Nokes Portrait
Caroline Nokes
This question was answered on 15th October 2018

The procurement exercise for asylum accommodation and support for the North East, Yorkshire and Humber and Northern Ireland regions is underway and is based on the same set of requirements as the initial procurement. We have taken steps to mitigate the time delay that this second procurement activity will take and have condensed our procurement activity to ensure that the transition period is protected. We remain confident of delivering a fully operational accommodation contract before the expiry of the current arrangements, with sufficient time to properly transition the services.

The Home Office has designed the project to replace the current asylum accommodation and support services so as to ensure a smooth transition of services from one Provider to another. The timetable allows eight months for mobilisation and transition activities. The transition planning activity has been underway for some time, allowing the Home Office to engage with Providers as soon as the contracts are let, this is a key lesson from the previous transition. The transition plans have also built on a number of other lessons, including the creation of a team with suitable experience, expertise and understanding of the new contracts and the early engagement with enabling functions from across the Home Office to plan out the demands that will be placed on them.

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