EHRC Briefing - Westminster Hall Debate on asylum accommodation contracts
Equality and Human Rights Commission
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has released the following in contribution to the upcoming Westminster Hall Debate concerning asylum accommodation contracts that will take place on Wednesday 10 October at 2.30-4pm.
New contracts for the provision of asylum accommodation and support (the Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Contract (AASC) and the related Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility contracts (AIRE)) are about to be awarded. The current contracts are known as COMPASS and are undertaken by private organisations on behalf of the Home Office. Significant concerns about the delivery of the COMPASS contracts have been raised by a range of organisations and parliamentary scrutiny bodies such as the National Audit Office and the Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) including in relation to equality considerations. This is a timely and crucial opportunity to ensure the new contracts reflect lessons learned from the COMPASS contracts and build in mechanisms to ensure equality considerations are embedded from the outset.
This briefing draws attention to two key areas where we consider improvements should be made:
• Ensuring compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)
• Improving monitoring and oversight of the delivery of the contracts
You can read the full breifing here.
