Home Office returns to France cost £56,000 each, Mahmood tells MPs

• Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Home Affairs Committee that the UK-France “one in, one out” scheme costs “about £56,000” for each person returned to France. She said she would write to MPs with the latest figure.¹

• Mahmood defended the estimate by saying it was roughly the same as, or cheaper than, supporting someone in asylum hotel accommodation for a year.¹

• That comparison is not yet demonstrated on a like-for-like basis. The Home Office has used an assumption of £120 a person a night for hotel accommodation and support, plus VAT: about £52,560 over a full year.²

• The arrangement is reciprocal: for every small-boat arrival returned to France, the UK accepts an equivalent number of eligible applicants from France through a legal route. By 30 June, official figures recorded 1,087 returns and 1,117 transfers into the UK.³

• The published returns data count people previously returned and then found re-entering the UK only once. Mahmood has not yet said whether her £56,000 calculation uses the same method, or whether it includes detention, casework, transport, legal costs and the cost of accepting people through the legal route.³

• The Border Security Commander says there is only “emerging” evidence that people are deterred from crossings, and that more evidence is needed to show lasting behavioural change. Its evaluation of the returns pilot is still under way.⁴

The £56,000 figure would imply spending of about £78.4 million if applied across 1,400 returns, the approximate number Mahmood cited in her evidence. That is an inference, not a published programme total: the Home Office has not released the calculation or its underlying budget.¹

The pilot has been extended until October 2026. Mahmood’s promised letter should establish whether the scheme saves money against accommodation costs, or merely moves a costly asylum case from a hotel into detention, administration and a flight to France.⁴

Footnotes

1. UK Parliament, Home Affairs Committee: The work of the Home Office, 15 September 2026, https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/68ce0e29-dde8-4c1c-a229-ce70f602cc7e; Rajeev Syal, UK paying £56,000 for each person returned to France under ‘one in one out’ scheme, The Guardian, 15 September 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/15/uk-paying-56000-for-each-person-returned-to-france-under-one-in-one-out-scheme ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Home Office, Asylum hotel savings from introducing visit visa requirements, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-hotel-savings-from-introducing-visit-visa-requirements/asylum-hotel-savings-from-introducing-visit-visa-requirements ↩

3. Home Office and Border Security Command, Transfers into and returns from the United Kingdom under the UK-France Agreement on the Prevention of Dangerous Journeys, between 6 August 2025 and 30 June 2026, 16 July 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-border-security-commanders-annual-report-data/transfers-into-and-returns-from-the-united-kingdom-under-the-uk-france-agreement-on-the-prevention-of-dangerous-journeys-between-6-august-2025-and-30 ↩ ↩²

4. Border Security Command, Border Security Commander’s annual report 2025 to 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/border-security-commanders-annual-report-2025-to-2026/border-security-commanders-annual-report-2025-to-2026-accessible ↩ ↩²