Recommendation 8

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