Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers his Department plans to accommodate in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber region under the new asylum accommodation and support contracts in each year from the commencement of those contracts.

To continue to meet UKVI’s obligation to provide accommodation & support to destitute asylum seekers, the Asylum Accommodation and Support Transformation (AAST) project has been established to design, develop and procure the future model for asylum accommodation and support, replacing the existing COMPASS arrangements when they expire in Sept 2019.

UKVI cannot predict the number of asylum seekers who will need accommodation as intake is volatile and subject to change. However dispersal across the UK is carefully managed by the Home Office to ensure the best outcomes for asylum seekers and their host communities. We will continue to work with stakeholders within the existing and new contracting arrangements to manage and refine our dispersal arrangements.