Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many asylum seekers are currently housed in private accommodation; and, for each month in 2021 and 2022, what was the cost of providing this accommodation.

The United Kingdom has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and other support whilst their application for asylum is being considered. Private accommodation is sourced through our Asylum Accommodation and Support Services contracts (AASC) providers. The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support. Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 24 November 2022.

Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential, therefore the Home Office does not publish this information. However, 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

From 13 April 2022, all Local Authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales were obliged to participate in a new system of full dispersal accommodation. This will help the Home Office to move from using hotels to less expensive and more suitable dispersed accommodation. The Full Dispersal model allows the Home Office to procure dispersal properties within the private rental sector in all Local Authority areas across England, Scotland and Wales, rather than the minority of Local Authorities which currently participate. This approach will reduce pressures on those Local Authorities that already participate.