On Monday Lloyd Russell-Moyle who is the MP for Brighton Pavilion submitted a question to the Government about them “became aware of legionnaire’s disease on the Bibby Stockholm.” and the response from the Government was Robert Jenrick who is the Minister for Immigration. The question and answer is available here and the text is below. There is also information about the Bibby Stockholm in Wikipedia that begins with the information that “The ship was built in 1976 and it was converted into an accommodation barge in 1992. From 1994 to 1998, it was used to house the homeless, including some asylum seekers, in Hamburg, Germany.” The piece explains how it moved around from many companies until “In April 2023, the Government of the United Kingdom announced plans to use the barge to house asylum seekers at Portland Port in Dorset, stating it would “offer better value for money for taxpayers than hotels”, referring to the £5.6 million daily bill for accommodating asylum seekers in hotels. However, The Guardian reported in July 2023 that the barge may only make a small cost saving.” The information from Wikipedia is here and here is the question and response on Monday in Parliament.

Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department became aware of legionnaire’s disease on the Bibby Stockholm.

Robert: As a temporary precaution to reduce the health risk as much as possible, on 11 August the Home Office went beyond the UKHSA advice and disembarked all 39 asylum seekers from the vessel to contingency asylum accommodation.