Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 17
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)
Many of those subject to removal will be living in Home Office accommodation, such as hotels or large sites, despite being unable to claim asylum in the UK. The Home Office spent an estimated £4.7 billion on asylum support (which covers accommodation, and financial subsistence for those who would otherwise be destitute) in the 2023–24 financial year, and the Government spent £4.3 billion of official development assistance budget (one-quarter of all aid spending) on supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, many of whom will not be entitled to claim asylum here. We challenged the Home Office that many members of the public would be surprised that it was spending so much of the overseas development assistance supporting people within the UK rather than overseas, and if it believed that was sustainable. The Home Office told us the UK had no choice but to “score it as [overseas development assistance]” but that the level of spending was not sustainable, which is why it was looking to reduce its reliance on hotels and reduce other costs, so that the official development assistance can be spent elsewhere.28 The Home Office subsequently wrote to us to correct its statement and said that the UK government chose to include all in-country refugee costs as overseas development assistance.29
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.