§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the remit of the NASS Performance Monitoring Inspection Team; how many inspectors it employs; and what are the performance targets against which its performance is measured; [159775]
(2) what procedures are in place to investigate complaints of sub-standard accommodation from people seeking asylum who are living in accommodation contracted through NASS; how NASS monitors its performance in providing accommodation of a proper standard; and what performance targets are in place in relation to this. [159776]
§ Mrs. Roche[holding answer I May 2001]: The National Asylum Support Service (NASS) has established a contract manager for each of its contracts with accommodation providers who is responsible for investigating complaints about the standard of accommodation. These investigations will either be carried out by the contract manager or by one of the chartered surveying firms employed by NASS as and when required.
The main remit of the NASS Performance Monitoring Inspection Team is the assessment of housing management put in place by all NASS contractors.
The current staffing level of the NASS Performance Monitoring Inspection Team is one Head of Inspections Senior Executive Officer (SEO), four Team Leaders Higher Executive Officer (HEO), 15 Inspectors Executive Officers (EO) and six support staff. All non-support staff are engaged in personally inspecting the accommodation and the support services that contractors are required to provide to NASS service users.
The NASS Performance Monitoring Inspections team has no formal targets for the proportion of asylum seeker accommodation to be inspected. However, regular reviews of the management practices in place by accommodation providers are undertaken together with consultation with service users and independent property inspections to ensure that accommodation services are provided to the required standard.