Information Commissioner rules in favour of Home Office, which refused to reveal cost of furnishing Hampshire accommodation

Charles Hymas, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR and Isabel Oakeshott6 September 2024 • 2:00pm

The cost of furnishing flats for asylum seekers cannot be released because the issue is too “sensitive”, a watchdog has ruled.

John Edwards, the Information Commissioner, has ruled in favour of the Home Office, which refused to reveal the cost of furnishing a block of flats to be used by 346 asylum seekers in Farnborough, Hampshire.

He rejected an appeal to release the information under freedom of information (FoI) laws, saying the public interest in revealing the cost to the taxpayer of the furnishing was outweighed by the need to protect the asylum seekers from protests and risks to their “health and safety”.

The apartments were allegedly finished with flat-screen TVs and satellite television.

Lee Anderson, the Reform UK MP for Ashfield, criticised the decision and said he planned to raise it in a parliamentary debate on immigration next week. He added: “The real risk is to the taxpayer, who is spending millions of pounds per day on people that should not be in the country.

“The fact that the Home Office and Information Commissioner are hiding or suppressing this information is a kick in the teeth for every single hard-working taxpayer in this country. They should have this information. I think they are probably embarrassed about the cost of it.”

‘Targets of reprisals or reactions’

James Cleverly, when he was home secretary, paused plans to move asylum seekers into the flats after a local backlash. It was claimed that, on the open market, the flats would have cost £1,400 a month to rent.

Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels and large-scale accommodation, such as RAF Scampton and the Bibby Stockholm barge, which is closing in January, for migrants.

On Thursday, the Home Office abandoned plans to use RAF Scampton, which was the Dambusters base, as an asylum camp.

In response to the FOI request, the Home Office had warned that accommodating asylum seekers was a “highly emotive and sensitive” issue that had resulted in public protests and disorder outside sites once they had been identified and located.

It told the commissioner: “It is common knowledge that vulnerable asylum seekers are targets of reprisals or reactions, and asylum-seeking individuals or groups of asylum-seeking individuals have been threatened and harassed in the past.”

In his response, the commissioner acknowledged the examples cited by the Home Office of situations where speculation about possible asylum seeker locations had led to the targeting of properties by those prepared to break the law, intimidate, abuse and cause criminal damage.

He said he was also aware of the more recent public disorder, believed to be a reference to the riots that broke out in parts of Britain last month. In some areas, asylum seekers’ accommodation was targeted and attacked by rioters.

‘Avoiding endangerment of health or safety’

The Home Office had responded to the request by neither confirming nor denying whether it held the required information, or whether the apartments were to be used to house asylum seekers. It is standard policy for officials not to reveal locations of asylum accommodation by neither confirming nor denying it.

Mr Edwards said he accepted the Home Office’s reasoning, exempting it from the need to confirm or deny the FoI request.

“In the commissioner’s view, there is a very clear and weighty public interest in avoiding endangerment to the health or safety of any individual,” a statement from his office, giving his verdict, said.

“While the commissioner appreciates the public interest in the cost of providing accommodation used to accommodate asylum seekers, in his view this is outweighed by the Home Office neither confirming nor denying whether it holds any information falling within the scope of this request.”