12th Special Report - Asylum accommodation: replacing COMPASS: Government Response to the Committee’s Thirteenth Report

This is the government's response, published 8 March 2019.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government states that it has agreed a refreshed approach with local authorities and is implementing an Assurance Plan, but it does not accept that asylum seekers are being housed in degrading conditions and does not accept transferring inspection to local authorities.

• It reports a new joint structure with the Local Government Association, headed by a Task Group chaired at Ministerial level, with agreed principles on dispersal and a commitment to "develop a steady pathway with set milestones" for redistribution.
• On cluster limits, it says it will "work flexibly with local authorities" and that imposing fixed cluster limits "could be problematic for some".
• It is "not convinced" that passing property inspection to local authorities would improve standards, and says it wishes to retain its own inspection and compliance regime.
• On an independent review of asylum seekers' experience, it "agrees that effective capture and analysis of customer insight is beneficial" and says the initiative "will be complete by March 2020".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error