"The provision of asylum accommodation, in line with the
Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, was examined by the National
Audit Office in 2014 and by the Home Affairs Committee (HAC) in
2017. While I did not set out to re-examine every finding or
recommendation made by the NAO or HAC, I took note of the Home
Office’s responses to the latter in particular and looked to
see what actions had been completed and what improvements had
been made.
For several reasons, not least the difficulty of extracting
evidence from the Home Office, this inspection proved more
challenging than most. My report is likely to please no-one. It
was clear from the Home Office’s response to the draft report
that this topic touched a nerve. It considered my criticisms
unfair and believed its efforts had not been fully recognised.
Meanwhile, I suspect that the many non-government organisations
(NGOs) and other stakeholders engaged with asylum
accommodation, and those living in it, will feel that the
report has not gone far enough in challenging the standards of
accommodation and support provided.
Discussions with the Home Office, the commercial providers,
NGOs and asylum seekers about particular properties showed just
how difficult it was to agree on what constituted “an
acceptable standard” of accommodation, and how equally
difficult it was for the parties to remain objective and to
trust each other’s intentions and actions.
The overriding impression from this inspection was of many
individuals – from the Home Office, the Providers, NGOs and
voluntary groups, statutory services and local authorities - up
and down the UK, working hard to do their best for those in
asylum accommodation, but often with quite different
perspectives and priorities.
The system will always rely on collaboration, but it is the
Home Office that holds most of the keys – to easing demand on
asylum accommodation through more efficient management of
asylum claims; to standardising data capture and improving
information flows; to ensuring policies and practices support
and protect the most vulnerable; to driving a UK-wide dispersal
strategy for asylum seekers and refugees that engages more
local authorities.
For all its efforts, this inspection found the Home Office too
accepting of the limitations of the current COMPASS contracts
and how things are, and too optimistic that the work it has in
hand and the new contracts would bring about improvements.
In reality, there is much more that it can and should be doing
now, before September 2019 when the new contracts start.
Otherwise, the same underlying issues with asylum accommodation
are likely to persist, whatever benefits the new contracts may
deliver.
I have made 9 recommendations, some of them time-sensitive. My
report was sent to the Home Secretary on 9 July 2018. While it
has accepted all of my recommendations, the Home Office’s
formal response (published with this report) looks to underplay
the evidence of poor accommodation standards. This is unhelpful
when it comes to building trust.
