Ukrainian refugees accommodation units: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many vacant hotel rooms and other types of accommodation units were held by the Scottish Government for Ukrainian refugees from 1 April 2023 to date?
2. The cost of these vacant rooms to the taxpayer per day?

Response

Question 1 –

The Scottish Government regularly publishes data on the Ukraine Resettlement Scheme including data on occupied hotel rooms and other accommodation used as welcome accommodation. As part of this answer the Scottish Government will release data on the number of unoccupied welcome accommodation rooms.

In the regular monthly statistical publication (Ukraine: analysis and statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)), weekly totals of occupied welcome accommodation rooms are presented. We align our answer with these dates. See table below for a weekly breakdown of occupied and vacant welcome accommodation rooms used as welcome accommodation from 28 March 2023 to 10 July 2023:

Table 1: Occupied and unoccupied welcome accommodation rooms excluding cabins on MS Victoria (28 March 2023 to 10 July 2023)

Date	Occupied Welcome Accommodation Rooms (Published)	Unoccupied Welcome Accommodation Rooms
28/03/2023	2,075	685
04/04/2023	2,040	580
11/04/2023	2,025	595
18/04/2023	1,980	640
25/04/2023	1,860	620
02/05/2023	1,885	570
09/05/2023	1,790	595
16/05/2023	1,780	585
22/05/2023	1,725	605
29/05/2023	1,720	600
05/06/2023	1,675	705
12/06/2023	1,765	615
19/06/2023	1,790	545
26/06/2023	1,805	545
03/07/2023	1,845	500
10/07/2023	1,860	455

Unoccupied hotel rooms were maintained during this time period to provide capacity to house guests disembarking from the MS Victoria in the event no other accommodation types were available such as hosted accommodation or local authority provided social housing.

The MS Victoria cruise ship docked in Leith, Edinburgh was used as a source of additional welcome accommodation. The ship became operational on 26 July 2022 and was fully disembarked on 4 July 2023. We present the following data on cabin occupancy between 28 March 2023 and 10 July 2023.

There were around 740 available cabins on board and the corresponding numbers of unoccupied cabins per week are as follows:

Table 2: Occupied and unoccupied cabins on board MS Victoria (28 March to 11 July 2023)

Date	Occupied Cabins (Published)	MS Victoria Unoccupied Cabins
28/03/2023	665	75
04/04/2023	660	80
11/04/2023	650	90
18/04/2023	645	95
25/04/2023	640	100
02/05/2023	635	105
09/05/2023	625	115
16/05/2023	605	135
22/05/2023	590	150
29/05/2023	575	165
05/06/2023	505	235
12/06/2023	420	320
19/06/2023	325	415
26/06/2023	245	495
03/07/2023	35	705
10/07/2023	0	740

Note that whilst there were around 740 cabins on board the ship, the utilisation of the cabins varied over time and so the number of unoccupied cabins presented above may not correspond exactly to the number available for guest occupancy.

Question 2 -

The average cost of a vacant room to the Scottish Government is £107 per day. This is the global average to date. The actual number of unoccupied rooms varies from day to day and the associated costs of these rooms will vary. This figure is for welcome accommodation rooms only and not for cabins on MS Victoria. MS Victoria lease costs are for the whole ship and not on a per cabin basis. The cost of occupied hotels on average is higher due to food prices and other associated expenses.

Notes:
1. Please note that in order to disclosure control the data, all figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. ‘0’ denotes that the reported number was zero.
2. Welcome accommodation could include hotels, apartments or aparthotels. This figure does not cover occupied cabins on M/S Victoria.
3. The data are provisional management information from live operational systems and are subject to change. The data are provided both by welcome accommodation team in Scotland and by direct contact with the facilities used for welcome accommodation.
4. Please note that each data point represents a snapshot of information available on the reporting date and cannot be compared to previously published data as a comparison over time. Number of hotel rooms (table 1) continues to change day on day. The change in rooms and the number of people occupying them are dynamic, as new rooms are occupied while other rooms are emptied. Number of cabins (table 2) continues to change day on day. The change in cabins and the number of people occupying them are dynamic, as new cabins are occupied while other rooms are emptied.
5. Please note that there may be delays in reporting from welcome accommodation and facilities used for welcome accommodation that affect data quality, due to operational pressures. This may affect the figures reported. Therefore, caution should be taken when comparing to previous weeks.
6. Total number of occupied rooms (table 1) concerns the number of welcome accommodation rooms or cabins (table 2) occupied by displaced people from Ukraine in Scotland and does not indicate the number of displaced people from Ukraine in each room or cabin.
7. Please note, welcome accommodation occupancy are dynamic data as some individuals leave, while others enter. As such any decrease or increase in occupancy over time does not indicate the total number of individuals that have left or entered welcome accommodation.
8. The reporting cut off day for welcome accommodation changed from every Tuesday to every Monday from the week commencing 22 May 2023 onwards. This may affect the figures presented, as some facilities or partners do not provide weekend returns. Therefore, caution should be taken when interpreting the data.
9. The figures (table 2) cover occupied welcome accommodation on the M/S Victoria.
10. The number of displaced people from Ukraine on the M/S Victoria is reported directly by operational teams.
11. There may be delays in reporting occupied cabins (table 2) that affect data quality in weeks from 12 June 2023 to 26 June 2023, due to operational pressures during the disembarkation period.

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