UK Home Office

The UK Home Office awarded Deloitte and PA Consulting contracts worth up to £350 million for data analytics services, contradicting the government's pledge to reduce consultancy spending. New controls were introduced to save £1.2 billion by 2026, but oversight gaps and non-compliance by departments have been highlighted by watchdogs and committees.

The UK Home Office's new asylum case management system, Atlas, is failing to provide data on appeal outcomes to decision-makers, hindering learning from asylum appeals. The system, which replaced the legacy CID system in 2025 after an eight-year development period, faced delays and required ongoing fixes even after its handover.

The UK rejected 1.34 million visa applications from Nigerians between 2005 and the first quarter of 2026, according to data from the UK Home Office.

Warm weather and calm seas have increased migrant crossings from northern France to the UK. Migrants from Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria, and Uganda attempted but failed to board a small boat near Gravelines. On June 18, 2026, 392 migrants reached the UK in small boats, with 10,244 recorded so far this year.

Two men were sentenced to prison for arson targeting property linked to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The plot was orchestrated by a Russian-speaking figure named 'El Money,' with evidence suggesting potential Russian state-backed sabotage. The men set fires over three nights in May 2025 as part of the scheme.

Over 60 rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have urged the UK Home Office to abandon plans to use AI-powered facial age estimation to determine the age of asylum-seeking children, citing concerns about bias, inaccuracy, and legal issues. The technology, set for a 2027 rollout, faces criticism for unreliable performance, particularly affecting people of color and trauma-affected individuals, with error margins of up to 2.5 years at the 16-to-18-year-old threshold.

The UK Home Office is implementing facial scanning technology to verify the age of asylum-seekers, despite internal tests revealing the technology's flaws and risks of life-altering errors. The government is proceeding with the system despite awareness of its potential inaccuracies.

Middle East Eye correspondent Mohammed Amin, who was denied a UK visa, won the One World Media Journalist of the Year award for his reporting on the Sudan war. He accepted the award by video, criticizing UK visa policies and highlighting the resilience of Sudanese communities during the conflict.

A man set fire to homes linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with a Russian-speaking handler named 'El Money' coordinating the attacks. The attacker, Roman Lavrynovych, was convicted alongside an accomplice, but the handler evaded public accountability. European officials suggest Moscow may be exploiting such incidents as part of a broader sabotage campaign.

A man set fire to homes and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with a Russian-speaking handler named El Money orchestrating the attacks. The perpetrator, Roman Lavrynovych, was convicted, but El Money remains at large. European officials suggest potential Russian state involvement in a broader sabotage campaign.

A Ukrainian man set fire to properties linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer under the direction of a Russian-speaking handler named 'El Money.' The attacker was convicted, but the handler evaded public accountability. The UK government condemned the attacks as 'abhorrent' while investigations into potential Russian state involvement continue.

The UK government requires big tech companies to implement device controls within three months to detect and block nude images for children. The policy was announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer at London Tech Week.

The UK Home Office has decommissioned the 25-year-old Case Information Database (CID) for asylum cases but continues to rely on spreadsheets and disconnected systems, according to a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report. The transition to the Atlas system has not resolved data fragmentation, with officials struggling to track cases, identify backlogs, or share information between the Home Office and HM Courts & Tribunals Service.

Palantir has won a £9 million UK government contract to replace the National Firearms Licensing Management System, managing records for firearms, explosives, and poisons. The contract, which could extend for up to ten years, involves 43 police forces in England and Wales and may include Police Scotland and PSNI. Palantir's selection has drawn criticism due to its CIA-backed origins and controversial contracts with the NHS and Ministry of Defence.

A leftwing US political commentator, Cenk Uygur, described the UK government's decision to ban him from entering the country as 'Kafkaesque'. Uygur was set to appear at SXSW alongside streamer Hasan Piker when the UK Home Office canceled his travel authorization.

US political commentators and left-wing content creators with large online followings were denied entry to the UK by the Home Office. They were scheduled to speak at the SXSW London festival and Oxford this week.

British authorities blocked Hasan Piker, a Turkish American online streamer, and Cenk Uygur from entering the UK for public events, citing potential risk to public good. They were scheduled to speak at SXSW London and the Oxford Union, and faced criticism for supporting Hamas.

British authorities canceled the electronic travel authorizations of Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur, preventing them from entering the UK for public events. The Home Office stated their presence may not be conducive to the public good, citing risks to UK society. Piker and Uygur criticized the decision as targeting criticism of Israel, while some lawmakers supported the ban over concerns about hate speech.

A coalition of over 100 organizations warns that the UK's plan to use AI for assessing the age of young asylum seekers could result in children being placed in adult detention facilities. The Home Office announced a contract to implement AI facial age estimation technology for disputed age cases among asylum seekers.

A coalition of over 100 refugee children's organizations has criticized the UK's plan to use AI facial age estimation technology to assess the age of young asylum seekers, warning it could lead to children being wrongly placed in adult detention facilities. The Home Office announced a contract to implement the technology for cases where the age of asylum seekers is disputed.

British citizenship applications reached a record high of 312,000 in the year to March 2023. The Labour Party announced plans to double the settlement waiting time to five years as part of a crackdown on citizenship applications.

A Nigerian sex attacker was finally deported after a decade-long legal battle. The UK Home Office argued that further legal proceedings would have stretched human rights protections too far.

The UK and France are extending a pilot scheme to stop asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats until October. The 'one in, one out' scheme was agreed upon last year by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. Asylum seekers have expressed dismay at the continuation of the scheme, which has failed to stop crossings.

The UK Home Office is planning to procure two contracts worth up to £300 million for its Strategic Central and Bureau Platform (SCBP) biometrics system. The department aims to modernize the platform and allow a broader range of suppliers to undertake support and development work. The estimated value for the contracts is £296 million including VAT over 11 years.

The UK Home Office has cancelled its Police National Database cloud migration project due to delays and cost overruns, and will instead bring the service in-house. The project was expected to cost an additional £26 million and be delayed by 18 months. The database shares information across police forces and law enforcement agencies.

The UK will pay £660 million to deploy 200 French officers to detain and deport asylum seekers from 10 war-torn countries, including Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Yemen, via a new removal site in Dunkirk. This marks the first time France has agreed to target asylum seekers attempting to reach the UK by small boat.