Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of G4S Care and Justice Service Ltd's compliance with housing standards for asylum seekers across the West Midlands.

Housing supplied by Home Office accommodation providers must meet the contractual standards for safe, habitable, fit for purpose and correctly equipped accommodation to comply with relevant mandatory and statutory requirements in relation to housing and this includes the Housing Act 2004. The contract contains specific requirements in relation to safe accommodation and relates the performance standard to the Housing Act.

The Home Office has robust mechanisms in place to monitor standards. This includes routine inspections of G4S properties and responding to specific concerns raised about accommodation standards. Where accommodation does not meet the required standards, the Home Office can apply service credits by way of a deduction from the provider’s invoice. The amount of money recovered in this way is determined by measuring performance against a series of Key Performance Indicators set out in the contract but could be up to 15% of the provider’s monthly invoice.