Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Rejected
Home Office lacks clear plan and timeline for ending asylum hotel accommodation.
Conclusion
The Home Office said it is very difficult to estimate how many people will claim asylum because of uncertain migration patterns, but that it has low, medium and high scenarios that it uses for planning purposes.53 When we asked the Home Office when it planned to stop using hotels for people waiting for their asylum decision, it said there were “too many variables” and that it “deliberately” did not have a date for this.54
Government Response Summary
The government rejects the committee's implied recommendation for better planning, stating it has a clear plan to reform asylum accommodation, including closing over 50 hotels by January 2024, and will continue to review modelling assumptions despite inherent uncertainties.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
3.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 3.2 The Home Office has always been clear that the use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers was a short-term measure to ensure that the department met its statutory obligation to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, during a period of unprecedented numbers of small boat arrivals. 3.3 In line with the Prime Minister’s comprehensive ten-point plan (13 December 2022) to tackle illegal migration, a clear plan and range of measures have been implemented to reform the management of the asylum accommodation estate. This includes optimising the use of existing hotels and increasing the number of people room sharing, growing the amount of dispersed accommodation available and delivering alternative forms of accommodation sites. As a result of these actions, the department has now begun to reduce reliance on hotel accommodation and has plans in place to close over 50 hotels before the end of January 2024. Whilst modelling asylum and accommodation demand is complex and inherently uncertain, the Home Office will continue to keep modelling assumptions and estimates under regular review to ensure that accommodation estate capacity remains sufficient for future levels of demand, under a range of different planning scenarios.