Stephen Doughty – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Doughty on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individual unique addresses asylum seekers were accommodated in by her Department in each constituency in the UK in each of the last six years.

James Brokenshire

The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Accommodation for asylum seekers is provided through third party accommodation providers under the COMPASS contracts. The Government does not retain information on the number of unique addresses as there is no direct contractual relationship between the Home Office and private landlords. The Home Office publishes quarterly data on the number of asylum seekers in Section 95 dispersal accommodation, by local authority. Data regarding the precise locations of asylum applicants cannot be provided at ward or constituency level as to do so would incur disproportionate costs and be precluded by the provisions of the Data Protection Act, given that individuals could reasonably be identified by such data.