Highly critical report finds government lacks coherent strategy for managing asylum as an integrated, end-to-end system
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today published a highly critical report following its inquiry into the asylum system, describing it as under severe strain, burdened by rising costs, persistent backlogs, fragmented accountability and weak data. It warns that successive governments have relied on short-term measures that have shifted pressures around the system rather than resolving underlying problems, leaving thousands of people in prolonged uncertainty while imposing substantial costs on the public purse.
Image credit: WikipediaYou can read the report online here or download the PDF here.
In the report, the PAC examines the operation of the asylum process across government and concludes that departments still lack a coherent strategy for managing asylum as an integrated, end-to-end system. It finds that major reforms have repeatedly been pursued without sufficient consideration of delivery risks, costs or wider consequences, creating a cycle in which efforts to improve one part of the system often generate difficulties elsewhere. Responsibility remains fragmented between the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, local government and other bodies, with no shared framework for determining priorities or measuring success.
In 2024–25, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice spent approximately £4.9 billion on the asylum system. Of this, around £3.4 billion was spent on accommodation and support. Demand has continued to increase. In the year ending December 2025, around 100,600 people claimed asylum in the UK, more than double the number recorded six years earlier.
The Committee's report comes as the Government seeks to implement what it has described as an "entirely new asylum model" and reduce annual asylum spending by £1 billion by 2028–29. Central to those plans are new governance structures within the Home Office and across government intended to improve coordination. However, the PAC concludes that officials have yet to explain convincingly how those arrangements will operate in practice or how accountability will be exercised.
One of the report's key findings is the extent to which reforms have merely relocated backlogs and created new bottlenecks. The Committee points to the Home Office's efforts to increase the number of initial asylum decisions, leading to growing pressure elsewhere, particularly in the appeals system.
It states: "There is a recurring pattern in which delays are not fully resolved but instead shift from one part of the asylum system to another. For instance, recent increases in caseworking productivity have not been matched by sufficient capacity in the appeals system, creating new bottlenecks at this stage of the process. Although the Home Office has noted that the government has funded additional sitting days in the First-tier Tribunal, this does not amount to a coordinated, system-wide capacity plan. Long-term demand management remains underdeveloped, with planning often focused on short-term fixes rather than the needs of the system as a whole. While we welcome the recruitment of additional judges, the Ministry of Justice could not explain how this aligns with wider resourcing decisions or how competing pressures across the tribunal are being balanced. We are disappointed by the clear lack of coordinated planning and the extent to which departments are still operating largely in silos. Without joint planning, shared modelling and agreed performance measures, the reforms are unlikely to deliver sustained reductions in backlogs, costs or delays."
Appeals are now taking approximately 60 weeks to be heard. The Ministry of Justice told the Committee that around 70,000 people were waiting for an appeal decision, compared with 27,000 in April 2024.
The Committee expressed particular concern about the number of asylum seekers whose cases remain unresolved for extended periods. Analysis by the National Audit Office of 5,000 people who claimed asylum in January 2023 found that 41% were effectively "in limbo". These individuals had neither been granted asylum nor reached a final resolution through the system. The group includes failed asylum seekers as well as claims that were withdrawn, suspended or otherwise unresolved.
According to the Committee, "many remain in the UK for extended periods while awaiting deportation or without a final decision. This leaves a large cohort of people stuck in the asylum system for prolonged periods, creating uncertainty for individuals and driving up support costs."
The PAC also identifies poor data quality as a fundamental obstacle to effective management. It notes that there is still no single, reliable record for each asylum seeker, with information spread across different systems, spreadsheets and local records. Officials were unable to provide some key figures with confidence, including information on absconders and repeated appeals.
The report states: "Poor data quality and weak management information continue to prevent effective management of the asylum system and undermine Parliament's ability to assess performance."
Although the Home Office has migrated asylum case management to its Atlas system and is working with HM Courts and Tribunals Service to improve interoperability, the Committee concludes that significant gaps remain. It warns that without integrated, system-wide data, ministers and senior officials cannot reliably identify where pressures are building or assess whether interventions are working.
The PAC delivers especially strong criticism in relation to failed asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected and whose appeal rights have been exhausted. It calls for a "complete overhaul" of the system of monitoring failed asylum seekers.
During evidence to the Committee, Home Office officials said they knew where "some" such individuals were and that those who failed to comply with reporting requirements would be treated as absconders and traced where possible. Officials also acknowledged that the department does not know with complete certainty who has left the UK and who has not. The Committee said bluntly: "This is a shocking and unacceptable state of affairs."
The Committee also highlights continuing concerns over asylum accommodation, which accounted for around £3.4 billion of spending in 2024–25. While the Government has pledged to end hotel use by 2029, the PAC says the Home Office has yet to demonstrate a credible long-term accommodation strategy. It points to a series of costly setbacks involving accommodation sites, including Bibby Stockholm and Northeye, arguing that the department has too often pursued major changes "without a realistic grip on delivery risks, costs or system-wide impacts".
The report is similarly critical of the Home Office's commercial oversight of accommodation contracts. While the department recovered £46 million of excess profit from providers last year, the PAC says this raises wider questions about contract design and management. The Committee says that the recovery of excess profits "rather than showing effective oversight, ... highlights weaknesses in the original contract design" and calls for a full review of whether current profit levels and contract models represent value for money.
In a press release accompanying the report, the Committee's chair, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, said the inquiry had revealed a system that had largely lost control of its own processes.
"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," he said.
He added: "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."