London : The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is issuing a stark warning as it finds the asylum system is failing to cope in the face of severe pressure.
Major policy and operational changes have been pursued without a realistic grip on delivery risks, costs or system-wide impacts. In its report, the Committee urges government to set out a clear framework for end-to-end accountability for the asylum system and prevent further funding and capacity challenges.
The PAC believes the system of monitoring failed asylum seekers needs a complete overhaul. The Home Office’s statement to the PAC – that it only knows where the “vast majority” of failed asylum seekers are – is shocking and unacceptable. Further, the report highlights the fact that, of 5,000 people who claimed asylum in Jan ’23, 41% were effectively “in limbo” – stuck in costly uncertainty in the system with their cases still unresolved.
The report calls on the government to estimate how many failed asylum seekers are in the country and deportation timescales. It should also explain how it will trace those with whom it is not in active contact, how it will tackle illegal working by failed asylum seekers and sanction employers, and how it will manage barriers to progressing people’s cases.
Despite repeated attempts to reform the asylum system, many long-standing problems remain. In December 2025, around 100,600 people were claiming asylum, more than two times the number recorded in December 2019.
In 2024–25, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) spent around £4.9bn on asylum, with spending on accommodation and support costing around £3.4 billion.
The government has committed to ending the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029. To deliver on this ambition, the Home Office plans to scale up the use of large and medium‑sized sites, but past attempts proved difficult to implement, and acquisitions such as the HMP Northeye site and Bibby Stockholm were costly missteps.
The number of asylum seekers housed in hotels by the end of September 2025 was approximately 36,300, though it is a welcome sign that this number appears to have reduced in the government’s latest reporting.
The Home Office must write to the Committee with a long-term accommodation strategy, and in particular how this is being developed in collaboration with local councils.
The PAC’s report identifies a recurring pattern across the asylum system. In the absence of a clear strategy, decisions around planning and resource allocation have been reactive and disjointed.
Narrowly focused fixes used to respond to rising case backlogs and costs have shifted rather than addressed issues, creating pressure elsewhere in the system. The PAC is calling on the government to set out how it will work to create a single shared evidence base that will enable joint planning and decision making across Departments.
The Home Office was unable to show the PAC that it has the commercial capabilities needed to manage asylum accommodation effectively. The need to “claw back £46m” from providers last year highlights weaknesses in its ability to prevent excess profits accruing for contractors.
The Home Office should undertake a full review to assess whether current profit levels are reasonable and determine whether the contract models remain fit for purpose. It should also articulate a set of clear actions it will take to strengthen its commercial capability, governance and contract oversight.
The Committee found no evidence that lessons from past mistakes are being used to clearly inform current actions. The government is at considerable risk of repeating past failures.
A clear risk management strategy should be set out, to demonstrate how the government will respond if planned reforms are delayed or fail to deliver the expected improvements. This should occur alongside a system-wide data improvement plan.
Chair comment:
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said:
“Our report provides an end-to-end snapshot of the entire asylum system, and its findings paint a disturbing picture – at the time of our inquiry, control of it had been all but lost.
“The focus on short term, reactive ‘fixes’ has left the government chasing after pressures pushed from one part of the system to the next. There is no clear strategy uniting these efforts, and engagement across departments and with local authorities is patchy at best.
“Given senior officials’ inability to articulate what the asylum system is collectively trying to achieve, it is no wonder such a directionless bureaucracy ends with people at the heart of it either left in limbo, or lost entirely.
“The bungled approach to the Northeye site also speaks to a deeper issue of the Home Office’s severe lack of commercial capabilities. It is indefensible that accommodation deemed unfit to house asylum seekers is now being looked at as part of plans to increase the UK’s housing stock.
“If it is not fit for asylum seekers, why is it fit for our homeless population? Serious action is needed to prevent further costly missteps and put an end to the excessive profiteering practices displayed by some hotel providers.”
For full text of the report, click the link : https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5902/cmselect/cmpubacc/89/report.html
