Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-10-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which contractors have been sanctioned for breaching contractual obligations in relation to accommodation for asylum seekers in (a) Birmingham, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England in the last two years; when each such contractor was sanctioned; and what each sanction so applied was.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The COMPASS contracts include Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for monitoring and measuring performance against required standards.

If a breach of the contractual obligations in relation to accommodation is identified then the Provider has a set timescale in which to rectify the breach. Should this not be rectified within that timescale then a KPI failure is recorded and may result in the application of a Service Credit. A ‘Service Credit’ is a rebate / money deducted from the Providers monthly invoice.

There were no service credits recovered from providers of the COMPASS accommodation in a) Birmingham, b) the West Midlands and c) England in the last two years, in relation to accommodation standards.