Recommendation 5

The Home Office should set out plans for enhancing and maintaining its commercial and contract management capability, to ensure that it has the skills and resources necessary to effectively manage the delivery of the contracts and control the costs of asylum accommodation. This essential capability should be embedded as a core function of the department’s operations, with clear accountability to prevent a decline in operational effectiveness over time. The Home Office should institute a consistent and systematic approach to the performance management of its officials and internal capabilities. Given these contracts will continue to cost vast sums of taxpayer money, the Home Office must ensure it acquires the capacity to manage them in a competent way. (Recommendation, Paragraph 44) 96 Oversight of provider performance