Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 30
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Accounting Officer told us that he received regular advice on a range of Home Office issues including each part, and the totality, of the programme of activity to stop the crossings of small boats and deter illegal migration. The Accounting Officer accepted his obligation to provide AO assessment summaries when there was a significant change to a programme or policy.52 HM Treasury wrote to use after the evidence session to clarify that a “significant change” included circumstances where a project no longer met the standards which informed the AO’s previous assessment or there was a major change in the programme’s scope.53 We questioned why the Accounting Officer had not updated his AO assessment on the Sovereign Borders Programme to reflect the introduction of the Illegal Migration Act. At the evidence session, the Accounting Officer acknowledged that this was a significant piece of legislation and told us they were keeping their assessment under constant review.54 The Home Office subsequently provided written evidence which explained that the summary assessment only covered the Nationality and Borders Act as this was the scope of the outline business case. The Home Office committed to publishing an updated summary AO assessment after the outline business case is updated to incorporate the Illegal Migration Act and Safety of Rwanda Bill.55
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.