5 June 2026: Public Accounts Committee: Missing asylum seekers and mounting backlogs show a system on the brink – PAC report
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.
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.”