Home Office’s £400m immigration unit bases policies on ‘assumptions and prejudice’, MPs warn

The Home Office appears to be formulating its immigration policies on “anecdote, assumption and prejudice” rather than evidence, MPs have warned.

In a damning report that calls for a “transformation” of the department’s approach to immigration enforcement, the Public Accounts Committee said the Home Office was relying on a “disturbingly weak” evidence base to assess the impact of the £400m it spends on the policy.

It also found that a “significant lack of diversity” at senior levels in the department, had created organisational “blind spots”, with the Windrush scandal a damning indictment of “the damage such a culture creates".

Although the Home Office has said it accepts the wrongs that led to the Windrush fiasco – which saw people with a right to live in the UK wrongfully detained or deported to the Caribbean – the MPs said the evidence they had seen inspired “no confidence” that the next such scandal wasn’t “right around the corner”.

The report supports the findings of an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) in June. It found that the Home Office was still unable to measure whether its hostile environment policies had the desired effect of encouraging people to leave voluntarily, and that it had “no specific evidence base” to support the effectiveness of the policies when they were introduced.

The Public Accounts Committee said it was not convinced that the Home Office was sufficiently prepared to properly safeguard the existing, legal immigrant population in the UK, while also implementing a new immigration system after Brexit and managing its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It found that the department had not estimated the illegal population in the UK since 2005, and that it could not respond to concerns that potentially exaggerated figures calculated by unofficial sources could inflame hostility towards immigrants.

Meg Hillier MP, chair of the committee, said it was time for “transformation” of the Home Office’s immigration enforcement into a “data-led organisation”.

“The Home Office has frighteningly little grasp of the impact of its activities in managing immigration. It shows no inclination to learn from its numerous mistakes across a swathe of immigration activities — even when it fully accepts that it has made serious errors,” she said.

“Within six months of this report we expect a detailed plan, with set priorities and deadlines, for how the Home Office is going to make this transformation.”

The findings come after a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) earlier this month found that the government’s hostile environment policies were fostering racist practices across British society and pushing people, including those with legal status, into poverty.

In March, the Windrush Lessons Learned review concluded that the Home Office had demonstrated “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness” towards the issue of race, and accused successive governments of trying to demonstrate they were being tough on immigration with a “complete disregard” for the Windrush generation.

Responding to the findings, immigration barrister Colin Yeo told The Independent: “It has become clear that the whole hostile environment policy was ideological, not evidence-based and never really about encouraging people to leave.

“This whole policy of leaving immigration enforcement to ordinary citizens, employers, universities and local authorities needs to be fundamentally re-thought.”

Minnie Rahman, public affairs and campaigns officer at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said the report “painted a very accurate picture of a clueless, careless and cold-hearted Home Office” and echoed the committee’s call for urgent change.

“Priti Patel claims she is determined to right the wrongs caused to the Windrush generation, but the Home Office’s recent actions believe her words,” she said.

“Immigration policy and practice must be based on robust evidence, proper staff training and a new culture of respect and care for individuals. People’s lives are in the Home Office’s hands and in the context of Covid-19 and Brexit, there can be no more excuses.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Office’s ultimate priority is to keep people safe and that includes having a strong border. We have developed a balanced and evidence-based approach to maintaining a fair immigration system. 

“Since 2010, we have removed more than 53,000 foreign national offenders and more than 133,000 people as enforced removals. On a daily basis we continue to tackle those who fail to comply with our immigration laws and abuse our hospitality by committing serious, violent and persistent crimes, with immigration enforcement continually becoming more efficient.”