Reform UK has pledged to create a police-led taskforce to scrutinise private companies providing asylum accommodation, with senior executives potentially facing criminal liability where people housed under their contracts commit violence against women and girls.
The proposal was announced by Reform's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf during a visit to Piddington in Oxfordshire, close to the former Bicester Garrison site which the Home Office is considering using for asylum accommodation.
Yusuf said a future Reform government would hold companies accepting Home Office asylum-accommodation contracts to account and seek to make senior executives “criminally responsible” for dangerous acts committed by people housed in their accommodation.
The proposal is not current law and Reform has not yet published the detailed legislation or legal test that would determine when an executive could be prosecuted.
Police-led taskforce promised
Under the proposal, Reform says it would establish a police-led taskforce to scrutinise private contractors responsible for housing asylum seekers.
The taskforce would examine whether company bosses could be held criminally liable when people housed by their organisations subsequently commit acts of violence against women and girls.
Speaking during his visit to Piddington, Yusuf accused the Government of putting local communities at risk and said executives taking Home Office contracts should face greater accountability.
The precise relationship Reform envisages between a contractor's conduct and an offence committed by an individual resident has not yet been set out publicly.
That distinction is important: the announcement is a policy pledge to create a new liability regime, rather than a claim that executives can presently be prosecuted merely because an asylum seeker accommodated by their company commits an offence.
Bicester asylum plan provides backdrop
Yusuf announced the policy near Bicester Garrison, where the Government has proposed using part of a former military site as asylum accommodation.
Cherwell District Council says the Home Office proposal could involve accommodation for up to approximately 1,250 people. The council says it was not consulted before the plans were announced and has raised questions with ministers about security, community safety, infrastructure and public services.
The Home Office's latest official factsheet says the site is no longer in active Ministry of Defence use and is being considered for people seeking asylum.
If approved, it would accommodate single adult male asylum seekers aged between 18 and 65. The Government says feasibility assessments are continuing and the proposal remains subject to the necessary planning permission and approvals.
The official factsheet does not currently state a fixed live occupancy figure, saying instead that any occupation would be phased.
Home Office promises round-the-clock security
The Government says that, if the Bicester site proceeds, an experienced specialist asylum-accommodation provider would be appointed to manage it on behalf of the Home Office.
There would be permanent 24-hour security, CCTV monitoring and collaboration with police, local authorities and other agencies.
The Home Office also says people seeking asylum undergo mandatory security checks linking biometric information to immigration, security and criminality databases before being allocated accommodation.
Ministers argue that former military sites can provide managed accommodation while reducing reliance on asylum hotels.
Reform expanding personal-liability approach
The latest announcement fits a broader Reform strategy of proposing personal criminal liability for company directors in areas connected to immigration.
Earlier in August, Yusuf announced what Reform calls its “Deliveroo Law”, under which company directors would be personally and criminally liable for systemic illegal working within their businesses.
Reform has also proposed a new strict-liability offence covering acts it says assist or encourage illegal entry into the United Kingdom. Yusuf used that proposal to warn Vodafone executives that they could face criminal sanctions under a future Reform government over support provided to migrants in France.
Neither proposal is currently law. They form part of Reform's policy platform and would require legislation if the party entered government.
Major legal questions remain
The asylum-accommodation proposal raises significant questions that Reform has yet to answer publicly.
Criminal liability would normally require legislation defining the prohibited conduct, the necessary connection between an executive's actions or omissions and the underlying offence, and any applicable knowledge, negligence or due-diligence tests.
It is not yet clear whether Reform intends liability to arise automatically from an offence committed by a resident, from failures in safeguarding or risk management, or only where a contractor has breached specific statutory duties.
Until detailed legislation is published, claims about exactly when a company director could be imprisoned would go beyond the policy information currently available.
Immigration and public safety battle intensifies
The announcement gives Reform another line of attack on the Government's attempts to move asylum seekers out of hotels and into larger accommodation sites.
The Home Office says the Bicester proposal is intended to provide basic, safe and largely self-sufficient accommodation while minimising the impact on the surrounding community.
Reform argues that contractors operating such sites should face much stronger consequences if safeguarding fails and residents subsequently commit serious violence.
With the Bicester proposal still undergoing assessment, the immediate significance of Yusuf's announcement is therefore political rather than legal: Reform is promising to extend criminal accountability beyond offenders themselves to senior figures running companies contracted to accommodate asylum seekers.
Sources
- The Telegraph via AOL: Reform pledges to prosecute firms that house migrant offenders — 30 August 2026
- Home Office: MoD Bicester (Site A), Oxfordshire factsheet — updated 20 August 2026
- Cherwell District Council: Site A, Bicester Garrison — Home Office proposals
- Reform UK: Zia Yusuf unveils “Deliveroo Law” — 6 August 2026
- Reform UK: Yusuf sets out proposed strict-liability immigration offence — August 2026