Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the value for money of the Migration and Economic Development partnership with Rwanda.

On 13 April 2022 the Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer of the Home Office, Matthew Rycroft, provided an assessment of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership between the UK and Rwanda to the Home Secretary.

Regarding value for money, the Accounting Officer recognised that ‘there are potentially significant savings to be realised from deterring people entering the UK illegally’ but concluded there was not currently sufficient evidence to be certain about the assumed deterrent effect. As such, the Home Secretary issued a Ministerial Direction to enable the policy to proceed.

This does not mean that the partnership will not have the appropriate deterrent effect; just as a new and untested policy there was not sufficient evidence at that point for him to conclude that it will.