Home Office preparedness for Covid-19 (Coronavirus)

The government acknowledges the importance of communication access, stating it provides Wi-Fi or SIM cards in initial accommodation and hotels. It rejects the recommendation for an additional £10 weekly phone credit, confirming a full review of cash allowances is ongoing and will be published.

The government accepts that communication during some moves was not thorough and will share operational lessons, but does not explicitly commit to vulnerability assessments for all future moves or a review of health provision in hotel accommodation, and has no plans for a safeguarding KPI.

The government rejects introducing a contractual KPI for safeguarding but states that a dedicated Safeguarding Board oversees existing frameworks. They have established a National Safeguarding Forum with local authorities and partners to enhance understanding and allow input, committing to provide progress updates to the Committee.

The government has no plans to reinstate the full weekly allowance of £39.60 but has decided to provide a weekly sum of £8 to cover essential needs for travel and clothing for those in temporary accommodation.

The government rejects providing the full £39.60 weekly allowance to asylum seekers in initial accommodation, stating there are no plans to do so. However, they have decided to provide a weekly sum of £8 to cover essential travel and clothing needs.

The government states it is committed to collaborative work and has tasked Strategic Migration Partnerships to work with Local Authorities to increase dispersal participation and procurement of accommodation, reporting to the HOLGCEX group.

The government states that minutes and papers from SAGE meetings are now published on www.gov.uk, partially addressing the concern about transparency of advisory bodies.