Overview
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood instructed officials to urgently examine how taxis are used to ferry asylum seekers to appointments and between hotels.
- A BBC investigation documented a 250-mile return journey priced at about £600 for a hospital check-up, with migrants saying taxis were booked by an automated hotel system and public transport was not offered.
- Ministers including Pat McFadden and Matthew Pennycook questioned the necessity of long taxi trips, calling scrutiny of spending appropriate.
- The Home Office confirmed through an FOI response that it does not hold aggregate figures for taxi use or costs linked to asylum accommodation.
- Reporting and legal filings cite large transport invoices and disputes involving contractors such as Clearsprings Ready Homes and PTS-247, set against more than 32,000 people in hotels and 111,084 asylum applications in the year to June.