Housing conditions for asylum seekers in Scotland have been slammed and some cases branded "truly horrifying".

MPs delivered a blistering critique of the housing system for people applying for refuge in Britain, describing some of the conditions in properties as a "disgrace" in the report published on Tuesday.

In one case, a refugee family in Glasgow was living in housing conditions that affected their child's growth and development.

A subcontractor of Serco, which provided accommodation for 3892 asylum seekers in Glasgow and South Lanarkshire as of February last year, noted the family needed moved to new accommodation.

They were left for a full year in the unsuitable housing with their child before being moved, with the Home Office saying "additional pressures were placed on our housing stock".

The report by the home affairs select committee also revealed Serco logged 21,930 faults or repairs to asylum seekers' housing across Scotland in the years up to July 2015.

The contractor failed to rectify the fault within the time stipulated in the contract on just 57 occasions.

Difficulty in securing sufficient accommodation is leading providers to place asylum seekers in hotels and hostels. In spring 2016, a total of 400 asylum seekers were placed into hotels in Glasgow due to the issues.

The Scottish Refugee Council reported instances to MPs of asylum seekers being in hotel accommodation for several months and revealed shared rooms of three to four people were the norm in Glasgow.

Providers were accused of failing to ensure items they are obliged to provide are present and in working order when a person is placed in accommodation.

Since 2012, accommodation has been provided to asylum seekers via six regional contracts, which are delivered by three providers - Serco, G4S and Clearsprings Ready Homes.

The report said the poor standard of accommodation was the most significant issue identified in the evidence it received, which focused largely on contracts administered by G4S and Serco.

The NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Psychological Trauma Service noted "that there was a lack of sensitivity to English not being the first language, specifically providers' staff not adapting their speech to facilitate understanding or using interpreters,"according to the report.

It added the Scottish Refugee Council said it had "not picked up any noticeable improvement in the actual quality of the dispersal housing, especially at the point when someone is moved in".

Glasgow City Council also told the committee it is seeing a "two-tier system" in which Syrian refugees coming in through the UK Government's Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement (VPR) Programme are getting a "gold standard of service" while that level of support "is not available in the asylum system or indeed when people get leave to remain, and ask for our assistance with accommodation".

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, the committee's chairwoman, said: "The state of accommodation for some asylum seekers and refugees in this country is a disgrace.

"We have come across too many examples of vulnerable people in unsafe accommodation, for example, children living with infestations of mice, rats or bed bugs, lack of healthcare for pregnant women, or inadequate support for victims of rape and torture."

Scottish equalities secretary Angela Constance said: "Today's report on asylum accommodation across the UK is deeply concerning and is the latest in a long list of claims about quality of accommodation provided to asylum seekers.

"Urgent action is now needed by the Home Office. As a matter reserved to the UK Government, they must ensure that asylum seekers, many of whom have endured great hardship and are particularly vulnerable, are treated with dignity and respect at all stages of the asylum process, including access to good quality, safe and secure housing."

She added: "We are committed to ensuring asylum seekers and refugees find protection, safety and security in Scotland, and we will continue to work closely with local authorities and Cosla to provide education, health and welfare support to those who arrive in this country.

"I will await the Home Office response with interest and am ready to be fully involved in discussions on how the recommendations in the report can be taken forward in Scotland."

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We work closely with our contractors to ensure they provide accommodation that is safe, habitable, fit for purpose and adequately equipped and we conduct regular inspections to check that this is the case.

"We have also made significant improvements to the operation of the contracts including increasing the number of dispersal areas by more than a third."