Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hotels are being used across the UK to accommodate Afghans under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy or Afghan citizens' resettlement scheme; how many people are residing in those hotels as at 23 September 2021; and what regions, as defined in asylum accommodation contracts, those hotels are in.

We continue to work with local authorities to source appropriate accommodation as quickly as possible for Afghan families who were evacuated to the UK. So far, over 300 local authorities across the UK have offered to house Afghan families. We would strongly urge every council across the country to contribute to this national effort. We are working across government and with local authorities to realise appropriate accommodation opportunities to meet the demands of this urgent national response.

There are around 11,000 individuals accommodated in bridging hotels across the UK who had been evacuated as part of Operation Pitting.

The Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme has not yet opened, however, we publish statistics on resettlement by local authority at Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)