Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by what process (a) Serco, (b) G4S and (c) Clearel procure accommodation under the provisions of the Compass system.

In accordance with the contract all accommodation providers are required to develop close and co-operative relationships with local authorities and maintain effective on-going consultation and liaison arrangements with them.

In practice providers work closely with the Home Office and regional Strategic Migration Partnerships to seek the views of local authorities on proposed addresses for asylum accommodation within dispersal areas on a range of issues including the capacity of local health, education and other support services; the concentration of service users and risk of social tensions. How the consultation is undertaken will be agreed with each local authority with the support of the Strategic Migration Partnerships.