Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made a comparative assessment of potential risks to asylum seekers who are women across each type of accommodation used to house those asylum seekers in Wales.

Across our estate there is an expectation that there will be mixed cohorts within our accommodation.

Some of our core Initial Accommodation may be configured to provide segregated areas specially for families and singles. Similarly in our Dispersed Accommodation there will be a mix of family properties and Houses of Multiple Occupation that are specifically for either males, females or mothers and babies.

Women with children who are in receipt of support are not required to share sleeping quarters with unrelated individuals of the opposite sex but may depending on the circumstances be placed in accommodation facilities that are used to house such individuals.

The Home Office has published the Asylum Support Contracts Safeguarding Framework at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-support-contracts-safeguarding-framework.

This framework sets out a joint, overarching approach, as well as the key controls and reporting mechanisms in place, across the AASC contracts, for safeguarding arrangements.