Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 8
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)
The Home Office confirmed that the agreement with Rwanda was designed to start relocations quickly and then scale up to significant volumes of people. We asked about the Home Office’s ability to manage the practical implications of relocating people, and the capacity of Rwanda to accept and accommodate them. The Home Office explained it had modelled the number of people Rwanda could take and by when but there were “too many variables” and it would provide no further detail on the number and timing of relocations. We therefore asked how many people the accommodation in Rwanda can take. The Home 5 Qq 45–49, 106; C&AG’s Report, UK-Rwanda partnership, paras 7, 8, 2.1 6 C&AG’s Report, UK-Rwanda partnership, para 1.4; HM Government, Press Release: PM Statement on Safety of Rwanda Bill, 23 April 2024 7 Qq 42–43, 89 8 Qq 51, 52, 58–60 9 Q 52–53, 55–58, 62 10 Letter from Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Home Office, to Dame Meg Hillier DBE MP and Rt Hon Dame Diana Johnson DBE MP, Chairs, Public Accounts Committee and Home Affairs Committee - Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership, dated 25 April 2024; Home Office, Statistics relating to Illegal Migration: data tables to 21 April 2024, 22 April 2024 11 Qq 134–138 10 Asylum Accommodation and UK-Rwanda partnership Office told us that it had invested in building up Rwanda’s capacity and capability, and that it knew that Rwanda was able to provide and organise enough accommodation for the number of people that it planned to relocate.12
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.