§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department(1) if he will make a statement on progress on the Government's assessment of the Refugee Council 'core and cluster' model of accommodation centre; and if he will make a statement on the methods of evaluation of the different models of accommodation centre for people seeking asylum being planned by the Government; [81044]
(2)if he will define the different models of accommodation centre that the Government is planning for people seeking asylum; [81043]
(3)if he will make it his policy to adopt the Refugee Council care and cluster model of accommodating centres. [81042]
§ Beverley HughesAs I announced in the House of Commons on 5 November 2002,Official Report, column 150W we remain committed to developing large, self-contained, out of town facilities in order to thoroughly test the on-site provision of services at accommodation centres. However, in order to test an alternative model, one of the trial centres will be smaller than 750 places and for single men only and may be located in or on the edge of an urban area. We have also made clear that our minds are not closed to other models and, in particular that we will continue to work with the Refugee Council on their "core and cluster" proposal. This would involve a series of hostels clustered around 134W a central services core. No decisions have yet been made on the Refugee Council proposals. We will undertake a thorough evaluation of the accommodation centre trial. It will include a combination of management information, consultation with relevant people and more formal research carried out by independent researchers under contract to the Home Office. The evaluation conclusions will be publicly available, and provided to Parliament.