[10] In 2015, a man from Saltcoats, Ayrshire called Her Majesty's Coastguard to report that two bombs had been planted on barges: the accommodation ship Gemini, and the Bibby Stockholm.

[12] In August 2017, there was discussion by a property management company about leasing the barge to provide university accommodation to 400 students in Galway, Ireland, along with the Bibby Bergen.

In April 2023, the Barbados Maritime Ship Registry revealed the Government of the United Kingdom intended to use the Bibby Stockholm to house asylum seekers.

[19] The plan is for the three-storey barge to stay in the port for at least 18 months, containing 506 asylum applicants waiting for the outcome of Home Office decisions on their cases.

[38] On the same morning that the first asylum-seekers boarded the barge, Carralyn Parkes (the Mayor of Portland, but acting in a private capacity) wrote to the Home Secretary Suella Braverman to announce that she was seeking a judicial review to challenge the failure to obtain necessary planning permission to use the Bibby Stockholm barge at Portland Port.

[40] On 27 August 2023, it was announced that the Fire Brigades Union had sent a pre-action protocol letter to the Home Office, warning of a legal challenge.

According to the Guardian, the Home Office had failed to arrange fire drills for residents of the barge or adequate risk assessments of the vessel.

[43][44] On 27 December 2023 a report was published in error describing the use of the Bibby Stockholm as discriminatory on age and sex, although it noted that there were provisions in the Equality Act that might allow such discrimination.