Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to purchase (a) tower blocks and (b) former student accommodation to house asylum seekers in Northern Ireland.

Only individuals claiming asylum in Northern Ireland are accommodated there, and as such there are no plans to acquire additional dispersal accommodation to house a wider cohort of UK asylum seekers there. The Home Office continues to work with a range of stakeholders and consider a range of options to fulfil its statutory obligations, and deliver our commitment to reduce the overall cost of asylum accommodation, including ending the use of hotels by the end of this Parliament.