Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 7
Thirty-Fourth Report - Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership
Published 29 May 2024
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We asked the Home Office how many people it planned to remove under the Illegal Migration Act. At our evidence session, the Home Office told us that it estimated at 28 December 2023 there were 33,000 people that the Home Secretary would have a duty to remove under the Act.8 We asked whether the Home Office had a duty to remove the additional 6,700 people who had crossed the Channel to date in 2024. The Home Office told us that it did not have an exact number of how many people were considered as being inadmissible and that it would have a duty to remove. It accepted that the total figure was at that point probably in excess of 40,000, and noted that the next statistics would be published in May.9 The latest statistics, published on 22 April 2024, showed there were more than 50,000 people living in the UK with no ability to claim asylum, who the Home Secretary will have a duty to remove.10 The Home Office also told us that it was extending its Voluntary Returns Service to offer failed asylum seekers £3,000 to relocate to Rwanda if they have not accepted to go back to their own country. The Home Office was unable to tell us how many more people could be relocated to Rwanda under this arrangement.11
From: Public Accounts Committee, Thirty-Fourth Report - Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership (HC 639), 29 May 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 11 July 2025 (deadline 29 July 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations, says it will end the Rwanda partnership with "no removals to Rwanda under the MEDP", and only notes two recommendations that it describes as no longer relevant or not proceeding.
- On the Rwanda partnership, the government notes the recommendations on quarterly updates and on an evaluation strategy, saying the first is "no longer relevant" and that evaluation of deterrent impact and value for money "will not proceed".
- On large accommodation sites, the government agrees and lists measures including restructuring the programme to deliver smaller sites and earlier due diligence; it says an Infrastructure and Projects Authority review found successful delivery "appears feasible".
- The government agrees to write to the Committee quarterly on service credits applied for accommodation safety KPIs, with a target implementation date of October 2024.
- On Accounting Officer Assessments, the government agrees but gives no date, saying dates are "dependent on project development". It will not yet publish one for the large sites programme, and will write to the new Committee "in due course" on third country negotiations.