Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 12
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 has established four large accommodation sites – the Bibby Stockholm vessel in Dorset, former RAF bases in Wethersfield, Essex and Scampton, Lincolnshire, and former student accommodation in Huddersfield. The Home Office estimated that, by the end of March 2024, it had spent £230 million on the sites, and it expected the Large Sites Programme to cost £1.2 billion over the life of the sites. Two of the sites (Wethersfield and the Bibby Stockholm vessel) were in use at the time of the session and housing approximately 900 asylum seekers. In total, the Home Office expected these four large sites to accommodate more than 4,500 asylum seekers when fully up and running. It planned there would be 3,700 across the two former RAF bases, approximately 500 aboard the Bibby Stockholm vessel and around 600 in the former student accommodation in Huddersfield. At our evidence session the Home Office told us that it expected to accommodate a maximum of 400 people on board the Bibby Stockholm vessel by June 2024, and that each of the former RAF bases would now accommodate 800 people.19
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.