Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that private providers contracted to run asylum accommodation services deliver on their contractual obligations.

We have a robust governance framework in place to manage service delivery of the Asylum Accommodation Support Contracts (AASC). Details of the AASC can be found at:

New asylum accommodation contracts awarded - GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-asylum-accommodation-contracts-awarded

The Statement of Requirements sets out the delivery standards providers are required to meet. It also sets out provider obligations in adherence to legislation such as the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010 as well as duties such as under section 55 of the Border, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, and the children’s duty, to safeguard children from harm and promote their welfare.

The Home Office has published Key Performance Indicator statistics covering the contractual obligations accommodation providers and others working in the asylum sector are required to deliver. This has been done since April 2020. This data is available on .gov.uk.

In all proposed accommodation sites, our accommodation providers work through a standardised regulatory checklist to verify the appropriateness of the site, including a detailed risk-assessment in advance of use. We work with our providers to carry out due diligence checks which include all relevant health and safety checks to ensure a site is able to operate in a legally compliant manner with all relevant standards met. We have also recently invested in ensuring these checks consider the mental and wellbeing aspects of asylum seekers and we are committed to working with all relevant providers to improve and build on the high service standards we expect.