Recommendation 17

The Home Office also told us that it pays for around 5,000 empty hotel rooms as a ‘buffer’ in case it needs more space than exists at its initial holding facilities such as Manston, where many asylum seekers are first taken when they arrive in the UK.49 This buffer is on top of what it terms ‘ringfenced hotels’ which it can move people to “quickly as an overflow from Manston before they come into the more permanent estate”, although during our evidence session the Home Office did not set out how many beds it reserved in ringfenced hotels.50 The Home Office said that increasing dispersal 39 C&AG’s Report, paras 4, 1.8 40 PM Statement on illegal migration: 13 December 2022, 13 December 2022 41 C&AG’s Report, para 3.19 42 C&AG’s Report, figure 9 43 Q 59 44 Q 59 45 TAP0006 46 Q 134 47 Q 110 48 Q 94 49 Qq 98–101 50 Qq 98–101 The Asylum Transformation Programme 13 accommodation through the transformation programme was a big part of its plan to increase accommodation supply and reduce hotel use, but that it was also looking to use a number of larger sites as alternative accommodation.51 The Home Office has faced several challenges in securing such accommodation. This has included legal challenges against the use of former military sites and difficulties finding ports that will hold barges.52 Hotel use, safeguarding, and Home Office stakeholder engagement