Speeches by Ribeiro-Addy.

“Why has the estimated value of the AIRE contract gone down since 2019, given that demand for support is significantly higher?”

“As you know, I asked loads of questions of the Home Office on this subject matter, and I want to find out why the Home Office recently claimed to have no centralised data on accommodation providers’ performance and what steps are being taken to rectify this. Those are the responses I get back.”

“One more from me. I want to understand the rationale for awarding further contracts to Clearsprings for asylum accommodation when the company had previously lost a Ministry of Justice contract due to performance issues, and why that past performance was not considered. I know people point a lot of the time to our Depar…”

“You have awarded further contracts to Clearsprings for asylum accommodation, more generally.”

“Yes. You are retaining their services, are you not?”

“Do you do that Department by Department? Do you look at what they may have done providing a similar service to another Department?”

“So we could realistically have a situation where they have lost a contract with another Department because they have performed poorly, even if they are doing the same thing—providing accommodation—but the Home Office would allow them to either continue past their break clause or potentially renew their contract?”

“A noble Friend from the other place reminded me of a conversation that she overheard me having with my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South (Zarah Sultana) in October 2023. Israel had begun bombing the civilian population in the Gaza strip, and my hon. Friend asked, “When will they say something?” As I often do, I…”

“I am most grateful to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I thank the Petitions Committee for this crucial debate. I also thank Gemma, the thousands of people who have signed the petition and the hundreds of constituents who have contacted me over the years, adding their voices to the call to end the archaic law…”

“5. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential impact of AI on the environment.”

“We know that AI has the power to transform civilisation, but its huge drain on the environment is a problem. For example, ChatGPT has an estimated 57 million daily users, but for every five to 50 questions it is asked, 500 ml of water are used to cool down its data centres. The Minister has explained some of the work t…”

“I just want to clarify that when you are given this task by the Home Office, it is to provide accommodation, and they allow you to use hotels for the said accommodation. They are not directing you to use hotels for the said accommodation.”

“You talked a lot about value for money and longevity. I know you are not necessarily involved in property development of any type; I know Clearsprings is not necessarily, and Serco perhaps only offers advisory services in relation to real estate development, but Mears does engage in property development. With the amoun…”

“I suppose this has been while responding to an emergency over a certain number of years with many millions of pounds. The question is, has your assessment been that building or looking into some development would ultimately help you provide real value for money instead of using hotels?”

“I want to ask some further questions about performance. Why have there been periods in recent years where you have consistently missed your targets for accommodating people in dispersal accommodation? That is specifically Clearsprings and Serco.”

“Is your answer that you have missed them because you are not maintaining things quickly enough?”

“So, you are essentially saying that they are not serious.”

“While we are on your complaints, I want to find out what your response is to analysis that suggests there is a significantly higher mortality and complaint rate within Clearsprings accommodation compared with other providers, and what action you may have taken to resolve this.”

“Do any of you have any instances where people are remaining in your properties even though they are meant to be moved on, for example being moved from a section 98 to a section 95?”

“The same question to you all in terms of how the KPIs around dispersals work in practice because of the large numbers who are not moved to dispersal accommodation but stay in contingency accommodation.”