Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 31
31
Deferred
The Home Office told us that the number of people that could be relocated to...
Conclusion
The Home Office told us that the number of people that could be relocated to Rwanda under the partnership is uncapped. We asked about its ability to scale up to relocate more than 50,000 people to Rwanda and if it had a “plan B” if flights to Rwanda could not get off the ground quickly enough. The Home Office told us that “plan A” was implementing the Rwanda partnership but the Home Office was planning for a range of scenarios, including negotiating arrangements with other countries. We asked about progress with these negotiations, and reports in the media that the Home Office was in actively talks with four other countries about third country removal of asylum seekers, and that more countries have been approached. The Home Office told us that it did not comment on leaks, but that it would not recommend assuming that the information reported was up- to-date or accurate.56
Government Response Summary
The government agrees in principle to address the issues raised, but states that target implementation dates are "to be advised" as they are dependent on project development and ministerial views, and defers updates on negotiations to "in due course."
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: to be advised. 6.2 The implementation dates are dependent on project development; therefore, a date cannot be currently supplied but the department will inform the Committee as soon as it is able to do so. 6.3 The Home Office is committed to producing Accounting Officer Assessments (AOA) for all required programmes including any new or outstanding Programme AOAs, these are being progressed now and whilst the Home Office intend to publish any outstanding assessments as quickly as possible, it is right that it gets the views of Ministers in this process. For new programmes or those with significant changes, the AOA will be produced promptly at the same time as an updated business case. 6.4 Decisions by new Ministers are likely to result in changes to some Programmes. For example, discussions are ongoing on the Asylum Accommodation Non-Detained Programme including large sites and so the department will not yet be publishing an AOA but will keep the Committee updated. 6.5 On sharing information about negotiations with other countries that are being considered for third country processing, the Home Office Permanent Secretary noted during the Committee evidence session that it is important that the substance of those negotiations is kept private due to their sensitive nature. The department will write to the new Committee on this in due course to provide updates as necessary.