Home Office spend on immigration and asylum

HO spend on immigration and asylum

On 5 March 2015, Home Office indicated their litigation expenditure on immigration and asylum cases was £131.27 million in the years 2011-2014 - I have asked for clarification as to whether or not this includes VAT.

This can be broken down as below:
2011-12: £35.7m
2012-13: £44.15m
2013-14: £51.42m

These figures seemed very high to me when compared to the info I had previous received from the Home Office.  So I looked back to see how the above figures corresponded with earlier information provided by the Home Office.

On 23 October 2014, Home Office provioded me with this list of the organisations who they have used for the provision of legal services since May 2010 however confirmed on 12 November 2014 that their main legal service provider for immigration and asylum cases was Treasury Solicitors who also then instruct Counsel.  A reasonable deduction therefore is that the fees paid to T-Sol should not be much lower than the figures above.  One would think.

T-Sol informed that the total amount in immigration and asylum fees received from the Home Office in the years 2011-14 is £57.22m including VAT over the same period.  On 15 December 2014, they confirmed that these figures include Counsel fees.

That leaves the whereabouts of over £74.0m unexplained.  Watch this space for a request made to the Home Office to explain the discrepancy (or discrenacy as mis-typed!) and this to see whether T-Sol can help clear this up at all.