How the government can take control of the UK's asylum system

The government must exert its authority over the whole asylum system and avoid short-sighted measures aimed at conjuring an illusion of control, says a new Institute for Government report.

Published today, How the government can design better asylum policy puts forward recommendations to help the government set a clear direction and a coherent asylum strategy rather than the reactive or contradictory decisions made by previous governments.

The report, the latest in the Institute for Government’s series on chronic policy problems, digs into years of government failure. Over the last 25 years ministers have pursued policy in line with ill-founded assumptions sooner than they have heeded the evidence of what works. Public approval of the government’s performance has declined as large numbers of people continue cross the Channel, despite multiple attempts at policy interventions since 2018.

While the root causes of demand for asylum are outside the government’s control, the new IfG paper says the UK can break away from the reactive policy and operational decisions on asylum that have dominated the last few decades.

The report says government should consider establishing a single regulated, legal route to apply for asylum from outside the UK to replace and consolidate the multiple tailored routes for individual countries – and give parliament a vote on the cap and criteria that govern this scheme on an annual basis. 

The paper also recommends that:

• The prime minister and home secretary agree how asylum policy is to be developed between departments and ministers, where decision making power lies and how issues are to be escalated through cabinet committees and to No.10
• The government set out an annual Migration Plan to be debated in parliament
• The government commit to the use of evidence in policy making, even where analysis may challenge ministers’ existing assumptions
• The Home Office commissions a regular programme of research into the motivations of people who migrate to the UK.
• The government reconsider previous governments’ decision to drop its commitment to create a new, independent Migrants’ Commissioner.
• The Home Office redesign accommodation and support contracts and give local authorities greater responsibility and resource to deliver these services.

Report author and IfG researcher Sachin Savur said:

“For decades, successive governments have struggled to achieve their various aims on asylum. The global increase in the number of displaced people, by more than 600% since the turn of the century, means that the government will have to break out of the reactive habits of its predecessors and take a more strategic approach. That starts with the government articulating an annual Migration Plan, debated in parliament, to set out its aims on asylum and how it intends to meet them.”

Notes to editors

• The Institute for Government is an independent think tank that works to make government more effective
• The full report is attached and can be found here.
• For more information, including data to reproduce any charts, please contact: press@instituteforgovernment.org.uk/ 07850 313 791.