Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that asylum seekers are tested for covid-19 before being placed in dispersal accommodation.

There is no routine testing for asylum seekers prior to them being dispersed, but in line with government guidelines anybody with symptoms in England can now be tested. Asylum seekers who test positive or have symptoms will be accommodated in hotel or self contained accommodation while they are isolating.