UK Inquiry Tracker

Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 11 Mar 2024 Closed: 29 May 2024 Parliament page

Asylum accommodation The Home Office is responsible for asylum and protection in the UK, including supporting destitute people who seek asylum by providing financial support and accommodation. At the end of June 2023, accommodation was provided to around 113,000 people seeking asylum, around 51,000 of whom were staying in hotels. … Read more Asylum accommodation The Home Office is responsible for asylum and protection in the UK, including supporting destitute people who seek asylum by providing financial support and accommodation. At the end of June 2023, accommodation was provided to around 113,000 people seeking asylum, around 51,000 of whom were staying in hotels. In 2022-23, the Home Office spent around £3.6 billion on asylum support, of which £2.3 billion was spent on hotels and £0.4 billion on other types of accommodation. The Home Office wants to reduce the use of hotels and is trying to procure accommodation in local areas while people wait for an asylum decision. It is also using, or seeking to use, sites such as barges or disused military bases. The Illegal Migration Act 2023 will place a duty on the Home Secretary to remove all those who arrive irregularly to the UK, and gives powers to the Home Office to detain people prior to their removal. This may bring about a significant change in the type of accommodation the Home Office requires. Rwanda partnership In April 2022, the government announced a Migration and Economic Development Partnership with the Government of Rwanda. The partnership, administered by the Home Office, falls under the government’s third country asylum processing policy. This is a process whereby individuals identified as being in the UK illegally, or seeking asylum after arriving illegally, are relocated to a safe third country. The partnership is designed to deter people from making illegal journeys to the UK. It runs for five years until April 2027, and may be renewed. Under the partnership, the UK government provides development funding to Rwanda and will meet processing and integration costs for each relocated person. In November 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the policy was unlawful and the Government responded by introducing the Safety of Rwanda Bill, which is currently making its passage through Parliament. There has been very limited transparency of the costs of the partnership and the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office requested a Ministerial Direction on the grounds there was insufficient evidence to conclude the policy would deliver value for money. On 8 December 2023, the Chairs of the Public Accounts and Home Affairs Committees wrote to the Comptroller and Auditor General to express concern at the lack of information available to Parliament on spending on the Rwanda partnership and to ask if the NAO would consider the matter. The NAO’s subsequent factual report on its investigation into the costs of the UK-Rwanda Partnership sets out the costs incurred to date and the Home Office’s estimate of potential costs when the partnership is operational. The report does not conclude on the value for money of the partnership which would depend on whether it deters individuals from making illegal journeys to claim asylum in the UK. Based on the NAO’s reports into asylum accommodation and the partnership with Rwanda , the Committee will take evidence from senior officials from the Home Office on subjects including: the costs incurred to date from the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda and the basis on which future costs would be incurred when the partnership is operational; the Home Office’s oversight and approach to monitoring the partnership; the Home Office’s current and future plans for accommodating and detaining people who arrive in the UK to seek asylum; the costs of different asylum accommodation and how the Home Office oversees such projects. The Committee’s inquiry will not consider the merits of asylum policy. The Committee is also unable to consider individual cases. If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to contact your constituency MP . If you have evidence on these issues, please submit it here by 23:59 on Tuesday 2 April 2024. Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. This inquiry was closed due to the 2024 General Election. Show less

4 Recommendations

28 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

2 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 6 events

11 Jul
2025

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-fourth report from Session 2023-24

29 May
2024

Report published

Thirty-Fourth Report - Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership

20 May
2024

Correspondence

Correspondence from David Fairbrother, Treasury Officer of Accounts, HM Treasury, re Follow up to 15 April PAC hearing on Asylum Accommodat…

29 Apr
2024

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sir Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, re Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership, dated 25 Apri…

15 Apr
2024

Oral evidence

The cost of the Rwanda Partnership and Asylum Accommodation

15 Apr
2024

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · Room 15, Palace of Westminster

The cost of the Rwanda Partnership and Asylum Accommodation

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

15 Apr 2024

View on parliament.uk

The cost of the Rwanda Partnership and Asylum Accommodation

Dan Hobbs · Home Office Joanna Rowland · Home Office Simon Ridley · Home Office Sir Matthew Rycroft KCMG CBE · Home Office

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Thirty-Fourth Report - Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partne…	HC 639	29 May 2024	32	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

16 results

2 Recommendation Accepted

Thirty-Fourth Report - Asylum Acco…

Mandate Home Office to detail future due diligence processes protecting taxpayers' money on projects.

In its haste to establish large accommodation sites, the Home Office made unacceptable and avoidable mistakes, and failed to protect value for money. The Home Office asserts that its need to deal with a “national emergency” meant it had to … Read more

Government Response

The Home Office has restructured the programme to deliver smaller sites, improved technical construction expertise for cost estimation, brought forward due diligence, and improved engagement with local authorities, with accounting officer assessments and business cases now completed for each site.

HM Treasury

Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership

Activity timeline 6 events

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Recommendations & Conclusions

Mandate Home Office to detail future due diligence processes protecting taxpayers' money on projects.

Require Home Office to provide quarterly updates on people awaiting relocation and safety penalties.

Require Home Office to detail plans for understanding local impact of asylum policies and council issues.

Committee took evidence on Home Office Rwanda partnership and asylum accommodation plans.

Home Office commits to timely reporting of additional costs for parliamentary scrutiny.

Home Office has established four large asylum accommodation sites with substantial costs and capacity.

Home Office underestimated large accommodation site set-up costs due to optimism bias and inadequate expertise.

Large accommodation sites projected more costly than hotels, challenging value for money claims.

Many asylum seekers remain in limbo with unprocessed claims pending relocation.

Home Office still developing specific safety measures for residents in large accommodation sites.

Home Office contracts for migrant accommodation lack specified penalties for safeguarding failures.

Home Office lacks a clear timeline for fully phasing out asylum seeker hotel accommodation.

Home Office exits leave hotels in derelict conditions, burdening local communities with regeneration costs.

Increased asylum decisions burden local authorities with rising homelessness and significant costs.

Home Office has improved liaison with local authorities to manage asylum accommodation impacts.

Home Office has established arrangements to monitor Rwanda payments and individual residence in country.

Government Response AI assessment · 32 of 4 classified

Correspondence 2 letters