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 housing asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge; and whether this cost can be broken down per asylum seeker.

Cost information is prospective and commercially sensitive, and as such is not available to be released. The pressure on the asylum system from small boat arrivals has continued to grow and requires us to look at a range of accommodation options which are more appropriate and offer better value for the taxpayer than expensive hotels.