Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average cost of (1) detaining an asylum seeker in custody, and (2) providing them with social housing in the community.

The Home Office does not detain anyone in temporary asylum accommodation. Our accommodation providers do not have enforcement powers and those we are accommodating are free to come and go as they please.

Information on the average cost per night to hold an individual in immigration detention can be found at Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). As at Quarter 4 2021, the average cost per night to hold an individual in immigration detention was £101.61.

The total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts(opens in a new tab).

We do not publish a breakdown of costs of our accommodation & support contracts by location or property type as such detail is considered commercially sensitive.