Home Office
The contracting department
In one sentence
Pays the hotels, the advice line, and charities that campaign against its own enforcement bills.
The Home Office is both the border department and the largest patron of the asylum NGO sector. Direct support cost £4.0 billion in 2024–25 (NAO). Hotel contracts with Serco, Mears and Clearsprings are now estimated at £15.3 billion over ten years. The AIRE advice contract went to Migrant Help for £235 million — the same charity that called Rwanda “cruel and immoral.” PQ 83601 (13 Nov 2025) put Home Office contracts to the Refugee Council at £8.0 million since 2020, plus a £3.2 million grant to advise unaccompanied children. This is not a rogue official. It is policy: the state funds the arrival machine.
All contracts are awarded following due-diligence checks, including best value for money for the taxpayer.
What they did
2019–2029
AIRE + hotels
Migrant Help £235m for asylum advice. Accommodation estimate inflated from £4.5bn to £15.3bn.
2024–25
£4.0 billion support bill
£2.7bn housing, £883m grants to councils including unaccompanied children, plus cash support.
Nov 2025
PQ 83601
Confirmed millions to Refugee Council and £47k to JCWI. No Care4Calais or Stand Up to Racism line on the HO books.
This file is about public money, not a Commons division. The grant table is on the Money page.
Sources: NAO 2025; PQ 83601; Telegraph, 20 Jan 2024