Written evidence from the Home Office

When I appeared before the Committee on 5 February 2013, I undertook to provide you with some further information:

The quality of asylum accommodation

The Committee requested detail on the improvement in the quality of accommodation of the asylum estate provided between the Target and COMPASS contracts.

As I mentioned in the hearing, we have included the Decent Homes Standards in the COMPASS contracts to bring asylum accommodation in line with local government commitments associated with improving social housing. This change makes a direct comparison of performance under Target and COMPASS contracts difficult.

That said, the table below provides a snapshot of data relating to property inspections undertaken during 2011/12 under Target and more recently under COMPASS. You will note that the data shows the number of properties that are not fully compliant has reduced, despite including the higher standard of the Decent Homes Standards, from 83% to 74%.

This data makes no allowances for the seriousness of the defects that were identified under the Target contracts; our more recent inspections have shown that much of the non-compliance in the COMPASS contracts (c45-55%) has arisen from routine defects.

Contractor withdrawal

The Committee requested detail on a contractor who pulled out after being placed first in four regions.

During the COMPASS procurement an adjustment was made to bidder rankings on two occasions:

1.              A bidding consortium submitted an abnormally low tender price which resulted in it being ranked first in four regions. Following a review of the consortium's pricing model it could not be proven that their tender would be sustainable, therefore we excluded the bidder from the competition;

2.              The exclusion of the consortium resulted in another company being ranked first in four regions. To prevent supplier dominance, the rules of the competition limited contract awards to a maximum of two regions to a single provider. As a result of this restriction two contracts were awarded to each of G4S, Serco and Clearel.

Clearsprings and Reliance

Clearsprings and Reliance had intended to form a joint venture called "Clearel". Reliance was to provide the transport services, with Clearsprings managing the accommodation portfolio.

Late in the COMPASS bidding process Reliance decided to withdraw from UK Border Agency contracts and, accordingly, from this joint venture. Following a re-evaluation of Clearers capacity, capability and prior experience in providing these services they were identified as a suitable supplier and were awarded the contract for Wales, and London and the South of England.

Mark Sedwill

Permanent Secretary

13 February 2014