Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to the public purse of refitting the Bibby Stockholm barge in Falmouth Docks to accommodate asylum seekers; and whether this cost has increased since work began.

Cost information is prospective and commercially sensitive, and as such is not available to be released. The pressure on the asylum system has continued to grow and requires us to look at a range of accommodation options which offer better value for money for taxpayers than hotels.