Recommendations & Conclusions
31 items
2
Recommendation
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
The Home Office has yet to demonstrate that it has learned from previous attempts to reform the asylum system, putting it at continued risk of repeating past failures. Recent reform efforts give us little confidence that the Home Office has learned from previous attempts to restructure the asylum system. Too …
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The Home Office has yet to demonstrate that it has learned from previous attempts to reform the asylum system, putting it at continued risk of repeating past failures. Recent reform efforts give us little confidence that the Home Office has learned from previous attempts to restructure the asylum system. Too often, the Home Office has pursued major policy and operational change without a realistic grip on delivery risks, costs or system-wide impacts. The consequences are visible across the system today – for example, costly missteps such as acquiring Northeye, Bibby Stockholm and Scampton, which have now largely been abandoned. Furthermore, the NAO found that of 5,000 individuals who claimed asylum in January 2023, 41% were effectively “in limbo” – they were not granted asylum and their cases were still unresolved in the system. This includes failed asylum seekers, and those whose claims have been disqualified, suspended or withdrawn. Many remain in the UK for extended periods while awaiting deportation or without a final decision. This leaves a large cohort of people stuck in the asylum system for prolonged periods, creating uncertainty for individuals and driving up support costs. At the same time, pressures elsewhere have intensified, with appeals currently taking around 60 weeks to be heard. While the government has proposed further structural reform, including a new independent appeals body, which will be introduced through a phased transition alongside the existing tribunal, departments could still not explain how the new body will be resourced, how long dual running will last or how risks during this transition will be managed. They made repeated references to reforms being “in train”, but provided little evidence of a firm grip on effective delivery. This lack of realism echoes previous failed initiatives and leaves the Home Office at continued risk of repeating the same costly mistakes. 3 recommendation The Home Office should, alongside its Treasury Minute
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HM Treasury
3
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
Poor data quality and weak management information continue to prevent effective management of the asylum system and undermine Parliament’s ability to assess performance. There is no single, reliable view of cases across the asylum system, with data spread across multiple systems, spreadsheets and local records. Basic information we would reasonably …
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Poor data quality and weak management information continue to prevent effective management of the asylum system and undermine Parliament’s ability to assess performance. There is no single, reliable view of cases across the asylum system, with data spread across multiple systems, spreadsheets and local records. Basic information we would reasonably expect to see, such as the number of absconders or number of repeated appeals, is incomplete, inconsistent or simply unavailable. Officials were unable to provide key figures with confidence, and arrangements for assuring data quality were unclear. Although the Home Office provided some additional figures after our evidence session and highlighted ongoing work to integrate its data systems, these do not materially change the picture. This includes work to develop a new data “blueprint” inside the Home Office to create connectivity by migrating legacy and manual information into the new Atlas system. However, officials told us that some Home Office staff continue to operate off individual spreadsheets, resulting in multiple records and ongoing data quality issues. Departments still lack integrated, system-wide data and agreed performance measures needed to manage the asylum system effectively. Until these gaps are addressed, senior leaders cannot fully understand where pressures are building or assess whether interventions are working as intended, and Parliament cannot obtain robust assurance on progress or value for money. recommendation The Home Office should, alongside its Treasury Minute response, set out a system-wide data improvement plan that includes: • a clear timetable with milestones and costs for delivering a shared data framework with Ministry of Justice, MHCLG and local authorities that sets out the data each partner requires to manage its part of the system; 4 • the technical, operational and behavioural changes needed to implement this framework and support joint planning and decision-making; • a broad and
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HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
Planning for how resources are allocated across the asylum system is fragmented and often reactive, repeatedly shifting backlogs rather than reducing them. There is a recurring pattern in which delays are not fully resolved but instead shift from one part of the asylum system to another. For instance, recent increases …
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Planning for how resources are allocated across the asylum system is fragmented and often reactive, repeatedly shifting backlogs rather than reducing them. There is a recurring pattern in which delays are not fully resolved but instead shift from one part of the asylum system to another. For instance, recent increases in caseworking productivity have not been matched by sufficient capacity in the appeals system, creating new bottlenecks at this stage of the process. Although the Home Office has noted that the government has funded additional sitting days in the First-tier Tribunal, this does not amount to a coordinated, system-wide capacity plan. Long-term demand management remains underdeveloped, with planning often focused on short-term fixes rather than the needs of the system as a whole. While we welcome the recruitment of additional judges, the Ministry of Justice could not explain how this aligns with wider resourcing decisions or how competing pressures across the tribunal are being balanced. We are disappointed by the clear lack of coordinated planning and the extent to which departments are still operating largely in silos. Without joint planning, shared modelling and agreed performance measures, the reforms are unlikely to deliver sustained reductions in backlogs, costs or delays. recommendation The Home Office, working with the Ministry of Justice, MHCLG and other partners, should develop and share with the Committee, no later than by the end of 2026, its understanding of the current capacity gaps across the system, their underlying causes and its plan for addressing them. As part of this, the departments should set out how they are bringing together and building on their existing modelling and system-design work to create a single shared evidence base that enables joint planning and decision-making.
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HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
The Home Office does not yet have a credible long-term strategy for asylum accommodation and local authorities still lack a meaningful say over accommodation decisions. Asylum support costs rose to around £4.0 billion in 2024–25, driven largely by the Home Office’s continued reliance on costly hotel accommodation. At the end …
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The Home Office does not yet have a credible long-term strategy for asylum accommodation and local authorities still lack a meaningful say over accommodation decisions. Asylum support costs rose to around £4.0 billion in 2024–25, driven largely by the Home Office’s continued reliance on costly hotel accommodation. At the end of September 2025, around 5 36,300 asylum seekers were in hotels – 2% more than the previous year, although still 35% lower than the peak of around 56,000 in September 2023. Despite repeated commitments, including a pledge to end the use of hotels by 2029, the Home Office has yet to set out a credible long-term strategy to expand dispersal accommodation. We welcome some tentative signs of improved engagement with local authorities, but this remains inconsistent. The Home Office plans to scale up the use of large and medium-sized sites, but past attempts have proved difficult to implement. It still lacks a clear understanding of the right incentives and support needed to deliver its approach to asylum accommodation over the longer term. Its revised 10-year accommodation strategy, originally planned for spring 2024, has also still not been published. Moreover, there is limited evidence that the Home Office fully understands the impact of its decisions on local services. This includes the additional strain placed on councils, such as Glasgow, by increasing numbers of people presenting as homeless after having left Home Office accommodation. While MHCLG outlined several initiatives under development, including capital funding for local authorities, these remain small-scale relative to the wider challenge of a general shortage of social housing across the UK. recommendation The Home Office should, alongside its Treasury Minute response, write to the Committee setting out its long-term accommodation strategy. This should include details on how the intended mix of accommodation in the medium and long term is expected to change under different demand sc
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HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
The Home Office has not demonstrated it has the commercial capabilities needed to manage asylum accommodation effectively. Managing asylum accommodation at scale requires strong in-house commercial expertise to oversee complex contracts, manage risks, and monitor provider performance. However, both the previous Public Accounts Committee and the Home Affairs Committee have …
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The Home Office has not demonstrated it has the commercial capabilities needed to manage asylum accommodation effectively. Managing asylum accommodation at scale requires strong in-house commercial expertise to oversee complex contracts, manage risks, and monitor provider performance. However, both the previous Public Accounts Committee and the Home Affairs Committee have repeatedly identified significant weaknesses in the Home Office’s commercial capability, including weak contract oversight, limited specialist capacity and poor transparency about provider performance. But the Home Office still cannot demonstrate that it fully understands the levers and controls available to it – for example, are providers delivering what is required or can the Home Office effectively monitor and respond when performance falls short? The Home Office has highlighted steps it is taking to strengthen its commercial capability, 6 including commissioning an external review of asylum accommodation and contract management arrangements, but it has not yet demonstrated that these weaknesses have been addressed or that it can prevent similar failures in future. It is also unclear whether risks are being shared appropriately between the Home Office and its providers, especially when assumptions on demand or delivery prove overly optimistic. While the Home Office asserts that it “clawed back £46 million of excess profit” from providers last year, we do not find this wholly reassuring. Rather than showing effective oversight, it highlights weaknesses in the original contract design and raises questions about whether the Home Office has the skills to manage these or future contracts in a way that prevents excessive profits accruing in the first place. Under the current system of cost-plus contracts, permitted profits are in many cases excessive. However, when we suggested that excess profits clauses be applied either retrospectively or prospectively, there was clear reluctance to do so. recommen
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HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
The system of monitoring failed asylum seekers needs a complete overhaul. The Home Office told us, in relation to asylum seekers who have been processed through the system and had their application rejected and appeals rights exhausted, it knows “where some of them are”, but that individuals “not complying with …
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The system of monitoring failed asylum seekers needs a complete overhaul. The Home Office told us, in relation to asylum seekers who have been processed through the system and had their application rejected and appeals rights exhausted, it knows “where some of them are”, but that individuals “not complying with their bail conditions” would be treated as absconders and that the department would “seek to trace them”. The Home Office also admitted that it does “not count absolutely everybody out of the country” and therefore does not know with certainty who has 7 left the country and who has not, while claiming that it knows where the “vast majority” of people are through its enforcement contact regimes. This is a shocking and unacceptable state of affairs. recommendation The Home Office should write to the Committee alongside its Treasury Minute response to this report with its best estimate of how many failed asylum seekers are in the country and what proportion it is actively engaged with. That letter should include: • the timescale in which it estimates it will deport most of them; • for how many of the remainder the Home Office does not know where they are, and what steps it is taking to trace and deport them; • the further steps the Home Office will take, through biometrics and regular reporting, to ensure that it can trace failed asylum seekers, and the penalties that will be imposed; • its plans for speeding up the deportation process; and • details on how the Home Office will improve its work with other government departments and local police forces to tackle illegal working by failed asylum seekers and sanction employers. 8 1 Leadership, governance and reform of the asylum system Introduction
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HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) about government’s management of the end-to-end asylum system.1
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On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) about government’s management of the end-to-end asylum system.1
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HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
Officials described new governance arrangements intended to strengthen system-wide accountability. The Home Office highlighted the creation of the asylum group within the Home Office, led by a Director General, to support end-to-end asylum operations. It said the group brings together intake, casework, operational policy and commercial functions and comprises “around …
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Officials described new governance arrangements intended to strengthen system-wide accountability. The Home Office highlighted the creation of the asylum group within the Home Office, led by a Director General, to support end-to-end asylum operations. It said the group brings together intake, casework, operational policy and commercial functions and comprises “around 10,000 people”, the majority of whom are in operations. The Home Office told us it has also established a new asylum system board, which brings together all government departments with responsibilities for “any aspect of the asylum system”, including the MoJ, MHCLG, HM Treasury, the Ministry of Defence, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Office. The board meets every six weeks and is intended to “establish a shared understanding of objectives and outcomes” and support cross-government accountability.13
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HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
We requested further details on how these arrangements operate in practice, including how departments consider the system-wide impacts of decisions. Officials described areas of joint work, including forecasting, modelling of demand for appeals and discussions on pressures affecting accommodation and local authority services.14 We also asked how trade-offs will be …
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We requested further details on how these arrangements operate in practice, including how departments consider the system-wide impacts of decisions. Officials described areas of joint work, including forecasting, modelling of demand for appeals and discussions on pressures affecting accommodation and local authority services.14 We also asked how trade-offs will be managed and activity coordinated across the system. The Home Office said the new asylum board will “discuss and resolve trade-offs between conflicting objectives and priorities in different parts of the system based on likely impact on outcomes”, with escalation to ministers or Cabinet committees if these cannot be resolved.15 Learning lessons
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HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
The same underlying barriers to improvement of the asylum system have persisted for years, despite multiple attempts at reform. The NAO reported that past interventions were often introduced quickly in response to rising backlogs or changes in asylum policy, without sufficient consideration of wider system impacts.16 It also found that …
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The same underlying barriers to improvement of the asylum system have persisted for years, despite multiple attempts at reform. The NAO reported that past interventions were often introduced quickly in response to rising backlogs or changes in asylum policy, without sufficient consideration of wider system impacts.16 It also found that there is no formal, system-wide approach for learning from upheld appeals or from past operational 11 Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 25 February 2026 12 Q 7 13 Q 10; Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 6 February 2026 14 Qq 3, 6, 11 15 Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 25 February 2026 16 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.6, 2.8 11 experience, limiting opportunities to improve decision quality at the first decision point. In addition, the NAO identified several long-standing barriers to case progression, including difficulties removing individuals who have exhausted their appeal rights, resulting in some people remaining in the system for extended periods.17
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HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
When we asked officials how lessons from earlier reforms had been embedded, the Home Office said it had “learned a lot of lessons” from its work to clear the initial backlog of legacy claims in 2023.18 It highlighted improvements it made following that exercise, including changes to caseworking processes, increases …
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When we asked officials how lessons from earlier reforms had been embedded, the Home Office said it had “learned a lot of lessons” from its work to clear the initial backlog of legacy claims in 2023.18 It highlighted improvements it made following that exercise, including changes to caseworking processes, increases in productivity, and improved training for asylum caseworkers.19 Since 2019, the Home Office has added quality review stages to test how well-founded its decisions are before going to appeal. However, increases in the speed of processing asylum claims have, at times, come at the expense of decision quality.20 Officials told us that these changes have contributed to backlogs shifting to the appeals system. The MoJ explained there were “around 70,000” people waiting for an appeal decision, compared with 27,000 in April 2024, and that appeals were currently taking “near 60 weeks” to be heard.21
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HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
The NAO analysed a sample of 5,000 people who claimed asylum in January 2023 and found that 41% of claims remained open but were not awaiting an appeal decision or outcome of further submissions from the Home Office.22 When we asked for updated figures during our evidence session, the Home …
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The NAO analysed a sample of 5,000 people who claimed asylum in January 2023 and found that 41% of claims remained open but were not awaiting an appeal decision or outcome of further submissions from the Home Office.22 When we asked for updated figures during our evidence session, the Home Office told us there were “roughly 224,000” individuals waiting in the system at the point the NAO report was completed, noting this includes those awaiting appeal outcomes or further decisions but not does include the backlog of people awaiting an initial asylum decision.23 The Home Office later clarified that the cohort described in the NAO’s analysis includes “claims that were withdrawn or suspended, as well as Failed Asylum Seekers and some smaller groups.” It also noted that the most recent published figure for the number of failed asylum seekers in the system was “just over 41,000” as at the end of June 2023.24
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HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
We also examined lessons learned from recent accommodation initiatives. The NAO’s 2024 investigation into the acquisition of the Northeye site identified significant weaknesses in due diligence, 17 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.8, 2.11-2.16 18 Q 5 19 Qq 17, 137 20 C&AG’s Report, paras 13, 2.9 21 Qq, 5, 52-54 22 …
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We also examined lessons learned from recent accommodation initiatives. The NAO’s 2024 investigation into the acquisition of the Northeye site identified significant weaknesses in due diligence, 17 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.8, 2.11-2.16 18 Q 5 19 Qq 17, 137 20 C&AG’s Report, paras 13, 2.9 21 Qq, 5, 52-54 22 C&AG’s Report, para 2.12 23 Qq 51-52 24 Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 25 February 2026, dated 6 February 2026 12 oversight and engagement with partners during the procurement process. The Home Office completed the purchase in September 2023 for around £15.4 million, and later confirmed it intended to transfer or sell the site after determining it was not suitable for asylum accommodation.25 During our evidence session, the Home Office told us it was still “looking at the best way to move the site on”.26 In its follow-up response, the Home Office stated it had agreed to transfer Northeye to Homes England “in support of their plans to deliver up to 240 houses to enable value to be gained from the site”.27 The Home Office later added that the transfer involves a “70:30 profit split” in favour of the Department after remediation and development costs, but confirmed it “will not be able to recover the full £15.4 million” spent on purchasing the site.28 If it is not fit for asylum seekers, why is it fit for our homeless population?
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HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
Efforts in 2023 to clear the backlog of legacy claims also led to a notable increase in individuals who had been granted protection status presenting to local authorities as homeless and requiring support, exacerbated by the requirement to leave Home Office-provided accommodation within 28 days.29 In response, MHCLG explained that …
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Efforts in 2023 to clear the backlog of legacy claims also led to a notable increase in individuals who had been granted protection status presenting to local authorities as homeless and requiring support, exacerbated by the requirement to leave Home Office-provided accommodation within 28 days.29 In response, MHCLG explained that the cross-government plan to end homelessness, published in December 2025, includes a Home Office commitment that accommodation providers will notify local authorities within two days when a newly recognised refugee at risk of homelessness is due to leave Home Office-funded asylum accommodation.30 25 C&AG’s Report, Investigation into the acquisition of the Northeye site for asylum accommodation, Session 2024–25, HC 30, 15 November 2024 26 Q 42 27 Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 6 February 2026 28 Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 25 February 2026 29 C&AG’s Report, para 2.6 30 Q 100; HM Government, A National Plan to End Homelessness, CP 1452, December 2025, para 3.4.6 13 2 Data, planning and system capacity Incomplete data and management information
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HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
Departments rely on accurate and timely data to understand how people move through the asylum system, but significant gaps remain in the information held across different parts of the process. The NAO found that a reliable, single record is not yet available for each asylum seeker, and that data needed …
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Departments rely on accurate and timely data to understand how people move through the asylum system, but significant gaps remain in the information held across different parts of the process. The NAO found that a reliable, single record is not yet available for each asylum seeker, and that data needed to track cases effectively is inconsistent or unavailable. While the Home Office has now moved fully to Atlas for asylum case management, the transition has been complex, with significant challenges in transferring and merging legacy data, improving functionality and upskilling staff. The Home Office and HMCTS are working to link their case management systems, yet current data sharing limitations make it impossible to directly track individual cases through the entire asylum process.31
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HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
We raised concerns that departments were often unable to respond to parliamentary questions because they did not hold information at the level of granularity requested.32 The NAO identified several examples where data was not routinely collected or available, including the number of people who had absconded from the asylum system …
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We raised concerns that departments were often unable to respond to parliamentary questions because they did not hold information at the level of granularity requested.32 The NAO identified several examples where data was not routinely collected or available, including the number of people who had absconded from the asylum system and the level of repeated appeals.33 When asked about these gaps, the Home Office said the challenge lies in “joining that data up between different systems and managing it through time”, noting that individuals move between parts of the Home Office systems, other systems, and in and out of contact. The MoJ said this join-up of data systems was “not an overnight fix”, but that it is working towards integration with the Home Office, by spring 2026, to support the introduction of a 24-week statutory timeframe to determine asylum appeals by those receiving asylum accommodation support or non-detained foreign national offenders.34 31 C&AG’s Report, para 2.21-2.24 32 Q 7 33 C&AG’s Report, para 2.24 34 Qq 73, 82, 88 14
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HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
Officials from both departments described ongoing challenges joining up information across systems. The MoJ explained that achieving fuller interoperability “needs money and a focused effort,” and that enabling systems to “talk to each other and share data” is difficult given the different digital systems in use.35 The Home Office said …
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Officials from both departments described ongoing challenges joining up information across systems. The MoJ explained that achieving fuller interoperability “needs money and a focused effort,” and that enabling systems to “talk to each other and share data” is difficult given the different digital systems in use.35 The Home Office said it intends to address some of these challenges by creating “a group of data analysts across Government” to support data join-up; this is a sub-group of the new asylum board and is already working with the MoJ.36 Additionally, the Home Office said it is creating “a new blueprint” inside the Home Office to ensure that all data for the borders and immigration system moves from manual processes to Atlas, and told us some staff still operate off individual spreadsheets, resulting in multiple records and ongoing data quality issue.37
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HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
We also heard evidence on how data is shared with local authorities, who require up-to-date information to plan housing and support services. MHCLG told us that local authorities need timely notice when people are due to enter or leave asylum accommodation, particularly where individuals may be at risk of homelessness.38 …
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We also heard evidence on how data is shared with local authorities, who require up-to-date information to plan housing and support services. MHCLG told us that local authorities need timely notice when people are due to enter or leave asylum accommodation, particularly where individuals may be at risk of homelessness.38 Information sharing between the Home Office, local authorities, accommodation providers, and other relevant parties, such as the police, is not always effective, in part because there is no standardised process for sharing safeguarding and risk management information.39 When we questioned the Home Office on this, it said it had “multi-agency fora” to discuss local authority data and is working on the premise that it will be able to link local authority data to Atlas in future. MHCLG told us it was working with the Home Office to improve visibility and highlighted joint efforts to strengthen data flows to councils.40 In its follow- up response, the Home Office referred to the Place-Based Visibility Tool as a mechanism for providing regular cross-cohort data to local authorities to give them a clearer picture of asylum seekers and refugees in their area.41
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HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
We also raised concerns about limitations in data used to monitor people who are no longer in active contact with the Home Office after exhausting their appeal rights. The Home Office told us that it knows “where some of them are”, but explained that individuals who are “elsewhere in the …
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We also raised concerns about limitations in data used to monitor people who are no longer in active contact with the Home Office after exhausting their appeal rights. The Home Office told us that it knows “where some of them are”, but explained that individuals who are “elsewhere in the country” and not in contact with the Department would be considered absconders.42 Officials said that where individuals are “not complying with their bail 35 Q 88 36 Q 94 37 Qq 85, 96 38 Qq 100-102 39 C&AG’s Report, para 2.23 40 Qq 100, 105 41 Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 25 February 2026 42 Qq 59, 61 15 conditions”, the Home Office would “seek to track them”.43 The Home Office also told us it is possible for someone to be “outside the country without informing the Home Office,” and likewise possible for some individuals to remain in the UK without detection.44 When we asked whether the Home Office knew who had left the country and who has not, it said it does “not count absolutely everybody out of the country” and therefore does not have complete certainty, although it stated that it knows “where the vast majority of people are” through contact regimes.45 The Home Office said it is increasing the number of people in active contact through improvements to reporting centres and those who report through digital channels, alongside additional enforcement activity, including arrests made through illegal-working visits.46 Reactive planning and capacity constraints
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HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
Planning across the asylum system has had to respond to shifting pressures at different stages of the process, and departments’ ability to model demand and plan ahead has been limited by the absence of shared data and a single, end-to-end view of system performance.47 Capacity constraints in casework, appeals, legal …
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Planning across the asylum system has had to respond to shifting pressures at different stages of the process, and departments’ ability to model demand and plan ahead has been limited by the absence of shared data and a single, end-to-end view of system performance.47 Capacity constraints in casework, appeals, legal aid and accommodation have historically led to delays in cases moving between parts of the system, as well as increased accommodation and support costs. While increases in Home Office decision-making capacity have also not always been aligned with wider resourcing decisions across the tribunal system, and we are concerned the MoJ had not demonstrated how competing pressures are being balanced.48
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HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
There is also no systematic approach for capturing learning from upheld appeals, which could otherwise help reduce avoidable demand and unnecessary pressure on the appeals system.49 These issues have been intensified by pressures on the legal aid system, which the MoJ highlighted, noting that more individuals are now representing themselves …
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There is also no systematic approach for capturing learning from upheld appeals, which could otherwise help reduce avoidable demand and unnecessary pressure on the appeals system.49 These issues have been intensified by pressures on the legal aid system, which the MoJ highlighted, noting that more individuals are now representing themselves and that this requires additional support from tribunal staff.50 The MoJ told us it had recruited “61 fee-paid judges and 25 salaried judges,” 43 Q 61 44 Qq 66-69 45 Qq 71-72 46 Qq 63-71; Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 6 February 2026 47 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.27-2.33, Figure 6 48 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.27-2.34 49 C&AG’s Report, para 2.8 50 Q 77; C&AG’s Report, Figure 6 16 with further recruitment rounds under way, and that HMCTS was “expanding remote-hearing capacity,” making greater use of float lists, and authorising retired judges and judges from other chambers to sit in asylum cases.51
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HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
On caseworking capacity, the Home Office told us that caseworker numbers had fluctuated in recent years, rising from 623 in 2021 to 2,547 in 2024 before reducing to 2,168 in 2025. The NAO found that increased demand for caseworker capacity to tackle a backlog of claims awaiting decisions in 2023 …
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On caseworking capacity, the Home Office told us that caseworker numbers had fluctuated in recent years, rising from 623 in 2021 to 2,547 in 2024 before reducing to 2,168 in 2025. The NAO found that increased demand for caseworker capacity to tackle a backlog of claims awaiting decisions in 2023 meant the Home Office relaxed its recruitment arrangements, resulting in some newly recruited staff being ill-suited to making complex decisions on asylum cases, which in turn affected decision quality.52 In a rolling twelve months to May 2025, 42% of sampled decisions had significant or fail errors.53 The Home Office told us it had “a comprehensive training programme and mentoring framework in place to support retention and improve career progression opportunities” for asylum caseworkers.54 It said attrition among caseworkers had reduced to 22% in December 2025, its lowest reported level since 2018–2019.55
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HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
We also questioned departments on the increasing pressure on asylum accommodation and social housing across the UK. Shortages of dispersal accommodation have contributed to continued reliance on hotels, and efforts to expand alternative options, such as large sites, have faced operational challenges.56 The Home Office told us it had increased …
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We also questioned departments on the increasing pressure on asylum accommodation and social housing across the UK. Shortages of dispersal accommodation have contributed to continued reliance on hotels, and efforts to expand alternative options, such as large sites, have faced operational challenges.56 The Home Office told us it had increased utilisation of existing accommodation by returning vacant rooms to use and exploring additional forms of accommodation, including former student buildings and government estate.57 51 Qq 73-74 52 C&AG’s Report, para 2.30 53 C&AG’s Report, para 2.31 54 Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 6 February 2026 55 Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 25 February 2026 56 C&AG’s Report, Figure 6 57 Q 27 17 3 Asylum accommodation and commercial arrangements Accommodation strategy and impact on local authorities
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HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
Accommodation continues to account for a large proportion of asylum-related spending, with pressure shifting as demand and system capacity change. Spending on asylum accommodation reached around £3.4 billion in 2024–25, and hotels continue to be used as contingency accommodation.58 The Home Office told us that the number of hotels in …
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Accommodation continues to account for a large proportion of asylum-related spending, with pressure shifting as demand and system capacity change. Spending on asylum accommodation reached around £3.4 billion in 2024–25, and hotels continue to be used as contingency accommodation.58 The Home Office told us that the number of hotels in use had fallen from around 400 at the peak in July 2023 to less than 200 by late 2025. It said it had “saved £700 million” in the previous year, due in part to the reductions in hotel use for asylum accommodation.59 The government has committed to exiting all hotels by the end of this Parliament; however, when asked whether numbers in hotels were now falling, the Home Office acknowledged that numbers had “gone down and then gone up a bit again” in 2024–25 due to an “unacceptably high number of arrivals through illegal migration”.60
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HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
1st Report - An analysis of the asylum …
We raised concerns that local authorities often do not receive early notice of accommodation decisions. We referred to previous examples, including Northeye and the Bibby Stockholm, where local authorities had not been consulted early enough.61 The Home Office told us it had introduced new “asylum accommodation plans,” agreed jointly with …
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We raised concerns that local authorities often do not receive early notice of accommodation decisions. We referred to previous examples, including Northeye and the Bibby Stockholm, where local authorities had not been consulted early enough.61 The Home Office told us it had introduced new “asylum accommodation plans,” agreed jointly with local authorities, although these are not published.62 It said it has “monthly meetings at a regional level” with councils and providers and that engagement with local government has “significantly improved”.63 In 2023, the previous Public 58 C&AG’s Report, Figure 5 59 Qq 5, 21 60 Q26; HM Government, Restoring Order and Control, Secretary of State for the Home Department, CP 1418, 21 November 2025, p 16 61 Qq 106-110 62 Q 109 63 Q 105 18 Accounts Committee recommended that the Home Office set out how it would give local authorities a more meaningful say over the use of asylum accommodation in their areas.64 In its Treasury Minutes Progress Report, the Home Office stated that implementation of this recommendation had been delayed from December 2025 to September 2026.65 When specifically asked about this during our evidence session, the Home Office said that it was continuing to work with local authorities on designing these arrangements and “increasing the amount of engagement” it does “on a day-by-day basis”.66
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In May 2025, the NAO reported that the Home Office was still reviewing its 10-year accommodation strategy, which it had committed to develop by spring 2024, and that no updated strategy had yet been published.67 When we asked about the Home Office’s longer-term plans, it said the current approach envisages …
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In May 2025, the NAO reported that the Home Office was still reviewing its 10-year accommodation strategy, which it had committed to develop by spring 2024, and that no updated strategy had yet been published.67 When we asked about the Home Office’s longer-term plans, it said the current approach envisages increasing the use of large and medium-sized sites over the next five years, alongside wider efforts to reduce the number of people supported in hotels. It intends to “scale up” the use of these sites as part a more “sustainable solution for housing asylum seekers” and said that “creating purpose-driven sites can support the whole system, including smoother casework, move on and removals”. However, we questioned the cost-effectiveness of large sites. As the NAO has reported, the Home Office’s own analysis suggests that large sites will cost more than hotels, as seen in previously costly attempts such as Wethersfield.68 The Home Office acknowledged that such sites are likely to “cost as much as or more per person per night than hotels,” but said they offer benefits including dedicated services, improved oversight and reduced pressures on local communities.69
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The Home Office also outlined funding available to local authorities to support asylum accommodation. It said the current grant package provides a single annual payment of £1,200 per asylum seeker in all accommodation types, including dispersal, overflow dispersal, initial and contingency accommodation, and a further £100 per month for each …
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The Home Office also outlined funding available to local authorities to support asylum accommodation. It said the current grant package provides a single annual payment of £1,200 per asylum seeker in all accommodation types, including dispersal, overflow dispersal, initial and contingency accommodation, and a further £100 per month for each additional occupied bed space between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026. It added that grant funding for 2026–27 will be confirmed in the coming months but is likely 64 HC Committee of Public Accounts, The Asylum Transformation Programme, Seventy-Sixth Report of Session 2022–23, 27 October 2023, conclusion 4 65 HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes Progress Report, Update of the Government responses to the Committee of Public Accounts - The Asylum Transformation Programme, CP 1284, 10 March 2025 66 Q 109 67 C&AG, Investigation into asylum accommodation, Session 2023-24, HC 635, 20 March 2024, para 1.22 68 C&AG’s Report, Asylum accommodation, para 11 69 Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 6 February 2026 19 to be in line with previous allocations.70 MHCLG told us it was building on lessons from the Local Authority Housing Fund, which it said had been “very popular with local authorities” in delivering accommodation used for Afghan resettlement. It said it was developing capital funding models that would allow local authorities to buy housing that, in the short term, “can be leased to the Home Office” and, in the longer term, “revert to local authority ownership and act as social housing or temporary accommodation.71 Commercial capability and contract management
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The NAO, Public Accounts Committee and Home Affairs Select Committee have each identified longstanding weaknesses in how the Home Office manages its asylum accommodation contracts. The NAO’s May 2025 briefing found that projected spending under the asylum accommodation and support contracts had risen from £4.5 billion to £15.3 billion, and …
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The NAO, Public Accounts Committee and Home Affairs Select Committee have each identified longstanding weaknesses in how the Home Office manages its asylum accommodation contracts. The NAO’s May 2025 briefing found that projected spending under the asylum accommodation and support contracts had risen from £4.5 billion to £15.3 billion, and highlighted that hotels accounted for 76% of annual costs while offering limited levers for the Home Office to control profitability.72 Our February 2025 report on Northeye identified wider commercial weaknesses in the Home Office, including bypassing key controls, insufficient due diligence, and an internal culture that allowed contract-management safeguards to be “easily abandoned” under pressure.73 The Home Affairs Committee similarly found in October 2025 that contract design and oversight had been “chaotic”, with limited mechanisms to challenge or recover excess profits.74
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The Home Office set out actions it is taking to strengthen its commercial capability and contract-management arrangements. It confirmed it was “considering the options available” for exercising break clauses and renegotiating contracts, and stated that it had “clawed back £46 million of excess profit” from providers in the previous year.75 …
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The Home Office set out actions it is taking to strengthen its commercial capability and contract-management arrangements. It confirmed it was “considering the options available” for exercising break clauses and renegotiating contracts, and stated that it had “clawed back £46 million of excess profit” from providers in the previous year.75 It also said it had commissioned an independent review of commercial capability and contract management, led by a non-executive director at the Ministry of Justice, and was implementing the subcontractor assurance framework, 70 Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 25 February 2026 71 Q 114 72 C&AG, The Home Office’s asylum accommodation contracts, Session 2024-25, HC 874, 7 May 2025 73 HC Committee of Public Accounts, Asylum accommodation: Home Office acquisition of former HMP Northeye, HC 361, Seventh Report of Session 2024–25, 5 February 2025 74 HC Committee of Home Affairs, The Home Office’s management of asylum accommodation, Fourth Report of Session 2024–26, 27 October 2025 75 Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 25 February 2026; Q 21 20 supported by site visits to ensure due diligence on subcontractors.76 We sought reassurance that the Home Office had learned from mistakes made from previous site acquisitions. It told us it had “instituted a new way of looking at the large sites going live”, including more detailed scrutiny of potential sites, enhanced technical surveys, strengthened commercial analysis, and earlier engagement with local authorities and service partners.77
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We also asked the Home Office about its approach to commercial incentives. The NAO had reported gaps in current contract performance information and the Home Affairs Committee found that providers faced few performance penalties and, in some cases, had incentives to prioritise higher-cost hotel accommodation. The Home Office said that …
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We also asked the Home Office about its approach to commercial incentives. The NAO had reported gaps in current contract performance information and the Home Affairs Committee found that providers faced few performance penalties and, in some cases, had incentives to prioritise higher-cost hotel accommodation. The Home Office said that it had strengthened monitoring of high-value subcontractors, supported by additional training for providers on supply-chain management.78 The Home Office told us it was “looking at all our contracts” and taking steps to improve contract oversight.79 It explained that the Department would not sign contracts that “do not offer the taxpayer value for money”.80
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We questioned the Home Office specifically on how it would use excess profit clauses within its cost-plus hotel contracts. The Home Office accepted that “in general”, cost-plus contracts do not represent good value for the taxpayer and acknowledged the risk that providers could earn higher margins under such models.81 However, …
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We questioned the Home Office specifically on how it would use excess profit clauses within its cost-plus hotel contracts. The Home Office accepted that “in general”, cost-plus contracts do not represent good value for the taxpayer and acknowledged the risk that providers could earn higher margins under such models.81 However, when we raised concerns about the obscene profits earned by providers in recent years, particularly while large numbers of people remained in hotel accommodation, and suggested that the Home Office exercise its excess profit clauses either retrospectively or prospectively, it did not set out clear circumstances in which this would occur. Instead, the Home Office emphasised again that it was reviewing contractual options and arrangements across its asylum accommodation estate.82 76 Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 6 February 2026 77 Qq 111-113 78 Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary of the Home Office relating to the inquiry into the asylum system, dated 6 February 2026 79 Qq 21-33 80 Q 36 81 Qq 38-40 82 Qq 32-35 21
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