Recommendation 19

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