In December 2024, government committed to “restore order to the asylum and immigration system,” with a number of interventions and changes to policy including the UK-France treaty targeting illegal crossings and the pilot ‘one in, one out’ scheme enabling returns of failed asylum seekers. Almost 110,000 people claimed asylum in the year to March 2025, more than the previous peak in 2002, while the Home Office spent £4bn in asylum support in 2024-25 (down from £4.7bn in 2023-24).
The National Audit Office has published its 2025 end-to-end analysis of the asylum system, from when a person lodges their application to the conclusion of their journey through the system. The analysis aims to highlight what needs to be done to improve efficiency, reduce unnecessary cost and drive more effective, high-quality outcomes. Its 2023 report on the Home Office’s programme speeding up asylum decisions to reduce costs found at the time that it was not clear whether efforts to clear the backlog of applications were sustainable.
The PAC’s 2024 report into the Home Office’s acquisition of former HMP Northeye found that a troubling culture at the Home Office was allowing key controls in its processes to be easily abandoned. Its report the same year into asylum accommodation and the UK-Rwanda Partnership found little to show for the money spent on the scheme despite significant sums of money committed.
Based on the NAO’s 2025 analysis, the PAC will hear from senior government officials across the several departments involved in the asylum system, as it carries out its full-spectrum overview of the system’s operation.
If you have evidence on these issues, please submit here by 23:59 on Thursday 8 January 2026.
Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. The Committee decides what information to publish and how. You can request anonymity or confidentiality when you send evidence, but it is for the Committee to say whether it will agree.It may treat submissions confidentially, even where you have not requested this.
Please note that the Committee’s inquiry cannot assist with individual cases. If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to read the information on Parliament’s website about who you can contact with different issues.