More than £22 million of taxpayers’ money is being spent on the Bibby Stockholm asylum accommodation barge, the Home Office’s top official has said.
The vessel being used to house asylum seekers is moored in Portland Port, Dorset.
In a letter to MPs, Home Office permanent secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft said the “vessel accommodation services” portion of the contract with CTM, which relates to the barge, was £22,450,772.
He said the assessment of whether the vessel offered value for money was “currently being updated”, but the figure has been revealed to be more per migrant than the cost of hotels.
The figure emerged days after an asylum seeker was found dead on the vessel.
South Dorset MP Richard Drax described the news as a “tragedy born of an impossible situation” and said he had been told by the Home Office that the man was thought to have taken his own life.
The cost of the accommodation was set out in a letter to the Home Affairs Committee’s chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson.
The £22,450,772 figure was contained in a variation to the contract with CTM – worth almost £1.6 billion over two years – to provide hotels and travel for asylum seekers.
As well as the payment to CTM for providing accommodation services on Bibby Stockholm, the Government is also paying Dorset Council £3,500 per occupied bed on the vessel, which can hold up to 504 migrants.
The council has also received almost £380,000 in a one-off grant to help support local charity and voluntary organisations provide services on board.
Related: Legal challenge launched against ‘appalling’ use of Bibby Stockholm barge to house refugees