Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 9
7th Report - Asylum accommodation: Home Office acquisition of former HMP Northeye
Published 5 Feb 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Asylum accommodation: Home Office acquisition of former HMP Northeye All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
In July 2024, the government announced the cancellation of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda (MEDP).21 We noted that nobody had been removed under the scheme, and the Department told us that there were no flights under the scheme other than for four voluntary 12 Q 4 13 Qq 4, 6 14 C&AG’s Report, para 1.3 15 Q 4; C&AG’s Report, para 7 16 Q 1 17 C&AG’s Report, Asylum Accommodation, Figure 6; Home Office News story, ‘Contract for Bibby Stockholm not renewed past January 2025’, dated 23 July 2024 18 Committee of Public Accounts, Oral evidence: Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership, HC 639, 15 April 2024, Q 179 19 Home Office News story, ‘Home Office will not use RAF Scampton for asylum accommodation’, dated 5 September 2024 20 C&AG’s Report, para 10, 2.4 21 BBC News report, ‘Sir Keir Starmer confirms Rwanda plan ‘dead’ on day one as PM’, dated 6 July 2024 11 removals.22 Despite this, the Home Office spent around £715 million on the scheme, including on payments to Rwanda, staffing, flights and detention capacity.23
From: Public Accounts Committee, 7th Report - Asylum accommodation: Home Office acquisition of former HMP Northeye (HC 361), 5 February 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 6 May 2025.