Daniel SandfordUK correspondent
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The Home Office stores confiscated small boat equipment at a facility in Dover – photo from 18 November
The UK’s asylum system is affected by inefficiencies, “wasted public funds” and a succession of “short-term, reactive” government policies that have moved problems elsewhere, the National Audit Office (NAO) has said.
As part of its analysis, the spending watchdog looked at a sample of 5,000 asylum claims lodged almost three years ago, in January 2023.
Since then, 35% (1,619) of those asylum seekers had been given some sort of protection such as refugee status, and 9% (452) had been removed from the country. But 56% (2,812) still did not have a final outcome in their case.
The Home Office welcomed the analysis, which it said supported “the case for fundamental reform of the asylum system”.
Most of the cases in the remaining group (2,021 out of the 2,812) remained in a sort of “limbo”, with no appeal lodged.
The NAO’s chief analyst, Ruth Kelly, told reporters: “They’ve had their claim refused, but they’re staying in the system with their case unresolved, and that’s because of the difficulties in removal.”
A shortage of other types of accommodation means that large numbers of asylum seekers whose cases are not closed are being housed in hotels. The cost of accommodation in 2024-25 was £2.7bn.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of Refugee Council, said of the January 2023 analysis: “The NAO’s finding that more than half of people who applied for asylum almost three years ago still don’t have an outcome is shocking.”