Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, where Migrant Help are contracted by her Department to provide assistance to those seeking asylum, what steps her Department is taking to ensure hon. Members receive prompt responses to constituent queries in relation to that service.

The Home Office introduced the Advice Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE) service, as operated by Migrant Help, to provide an independent resource for asylum seekers to request help, report issues and property defects, provide feedback or make complaints.

Asylum seekers are able to contact Migrant Help 24/7 by telephone, webchat or email, and there are strict service level agreements in place to resolving contacts, dependent on issue type. The contract has a range of Key Performance Indicators by which performance in all areas is reported on and monitored. Details of the AIRE contract is found at AIRE - Advice Issue Reporting and Eligibility - Contracts Finder.

As Migrant Help provide a range of services via multiple channels to a large cohort, to provide the information requested could only be done at a disproportionate cost.