Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Accepted
Home Office communications with local councils on asylum accommodation changes remain inconsistent.
Recommendation
The Home Office told us that it is working with the Local Government Association and individual councils and was “talking about all the big issues that arise, whether that is housing capacity, health, safeguarding and so on”.62 Specifically on room-sharing, the Home Office said it was “talking that through nationally and individually with councils”.63 We pointed out that councils had already received letters telling them how many more people would need to be accommodated in hotels. The Home Office acknowledged that its communications had not been about whether the increase in room-sharing will happen, 51 Q 61 52 House of Commons Library, Asylum accommodation: hotels, vessels and large-scale sites, CBP 9831, 7 July 2023 53 Q 63 54 Qq 89–90 55 Q 91 56 Qq 66–68 57 Q 66 58 Q 115 59 Correspondence from the Home Office to PAC dated 18 August 2023 60 Committee of Public Accounts, Asylum accommodation and support transformation programme, Twenty-Fifth Report of Session 2019–21, HC 683, 20 November 2020 61 HM Treasury, Government responses to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty-Fifth to the Twenty- Ninth reports from Session 2019–21, CP 376, February 2021 62 Qq 81, 143 63 Qq 85–86 14 The Asylum Transformation Programme but about how it will be done and how risks will be managed.64 The Home Office could not answer a specific question asking why Hull City Council received a letter from the Home Office saying that it was halting further increases in the asylum seeking population due to unsustainable pressures in the area, only to receive another letter 10 days later saying it would double the number of people in hotels in the city.65 In a letter the Home Office sent to us on 18 August 2023, it said that dispersed accommodation procurement in Hull was paused, except for any accommodation already in the process of being procured. It said that room sharing in hotels was treated separately from dispersed accommodation.66
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation, committing to pilots for a Place-Based Approach from January-March 2024, improving data sharing with local authorities, and refreshing Full Dispersal plans from 2024, targeting implementation by December 2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: iterative to December 2025 4.2 Through informal consultation, partners told the department that they wanted to build on the Full Dispersal model and adopt a Place-Based Approach to all protection-based immigration demands in an area; there is a desire to build sustainable partnerships, based on a collective responsibility, trust and support. We will be running pilots between January and March 2024 with London, Wales and South West England to test initial design principles for a revised approach. 4.3 The government has endeavoured to improve working relationships with local authorities, through data sharing, including populations for asylum, resettlement, and Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children by region and LA. The department has further shared decision service data for Streamlined Asylum Process cases by local authority with the next iteration due to be shared via a new automated visibility tool in Winter 2023-24. Moreover, individual discussions have taken place between the department and those local authorities most impacted by Streamlined Asylum Processing and case clearance this year, to discuss local authority handling proposals that will reduce impacts. The department continues to follow the same collaborative approach used for engagement for the Full Dispersal project, including launching informal consultations, and working collaboratively through its Regional governance boards, where data is shared, and decisions are taken collectively. Finally, the department will utilise existing well-established governance in place through the Asylum, Resettlement Councils Senior Engagement Group, Oversight Group and regional governance boards, which is the active space for collaboration. 4.4 Based on the feedback the department has had over the past year from local authorities, it intends to refresh the Full Dispersal plans from 2024 ensuring they are evidence based and deliverable. It will be factoring in a range of matters including housing market, social pressures and existing populations. It is also exploring the possibility of broadening the plans out to include contingency accommodation.