With thanks to Scottish Refugee Council for obtaining and sharing these documents, which includes safeguarding documents from Clearsprings, Serco, Mears and Migrant Help.
FOI Reference: 59398
13 October 2020
Dear Mr O’Neill
Thank you for your enquiry of 7 July in which you requested information on asylum accommodation. Your request has been handled as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I apologise for the delay in replying.
Information Requested
- Please provide the dates and minutes (with personal information redacted) of the Home Office’s Safeguarding Board for the AASC / AIRE contracts, established in November 2019?
- Please provide any Safeguarding Framework produced by the above Safeguarding Board?
- Please provide document(s) of how vulnerabilities and safeguarding are monitored in the performance of the AASC / AIRE contracts?
Response
The information you have requested in questions 1 & 2 can be found in the attached annexes.
With regards to question 3; I can confirm that this information is held by the Home Office however; it is not being disclosed, pursuant to the exemption under section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Section 43(2) allows us to exempt information if its disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any persons. If we were to disclose the information to you, this would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of both the Home Office and those companies with whom the Home Office enters into contracts.
This exemption requires us to consider whether, in every respect the public interest in maintaining the exemption stated above, outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
Arguments for and against disclosure in terms of the public interest, with the reasons for our conclusion, are set out below in Annex 1.
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months to foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk, quoting reference 59398. If you ask for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response.
As part of any internal review the Department’s handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff not involved in providing you with this response. If you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you would have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Yours sincerely
J Slater
Central Operations