The Minister of the Interior issued a “ministerial instruction” regarding the asylum plan in Rwanda, rejecting the fears of its own civil servants, according to Sky News.
Ministerial guidelines are used when a senior civil servant in a department has objected to the cost or feasibility of a cost plan.
A source from the Ministry of Interior said: “The employees of the Ministry of Interior are clear that deterring illegal entry would lead to significant savings. However, such a deterrent effect cannot be quantified with certainty.
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10:25 Immigration Minister Tom Parsglow complains that there was
“It would be wrong to let the lack of precision modeling slow down policies aimed at reducing illegal migration, saving lives and breaking the business model of smuggling gangs.”
The UK government is trying to quell the crossing of the English Channel with small boats and as part of plans, the Home Office has signed an agreement with Rwanda to send migrants to the African country without access to the sea.
Rob Powell
Political correspondent
@robpowellnews
At a very basic level, ministerial instructions are used when the government considers the situation to be so critical that it is willing to take the risk of taxpayers’ money being wasted.
During the pandemic, instructions were issued for loan schemes, despite government concerns about the risk of fraud.
The justification was that the need to quickly withdraw money from businesses to prevent their bankruptcy exceeds the scale of potential losses.
Looking back at the billions potentially wasted on fraud, many may wonder if more caution should have been exercised.
The well-known Eat Out To Help Out scheme also requires guidance to address objections to the lack of evidence to show that such a new policy will achieve its goals.
A similar justification is proposed for the Rwanda Partnership on Asylum.
This ministerial instruction does not mean that the civil service is against the policy, but it shows how uncertain there is that the plan will actually work.
Nor is it necessarily as harmful to the interior minister as her critics suggest.
Priti Patel embraces his reputation as a steel minister who bravely fights the bureaucracy of the civil service.
For those involved in her cause, this may be just another example of a woman’s crusade against the Whitehall Spot.
The interior ministry said on Thursday that the first people sent to Rwanda will be officially notified in the coming weeks, with the first flights taking place in the next few months.
The partnership was initially reported to cost £ 120m, and Priti Patel told a news conference in Kigali on Thursday that the UK was making “substantial investments” in Rwanda’s development.
More on the passage of migrants
What are the ministerial instructions?
The Ministerial Guidelines have been used only 46 times since 2011, many of which were issued during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They have the effect of instructing civil servants to pursue policy despite the objections of the department’s senior non-political official.
Read more: Boris Johnson’s asylum plans, driven by political necessity and a degree of despair, Britain could send first migrants to Rwanda within ‘weeks’
This means that the minister becomes responsible for the costs, not the civil service.
Guidelines have been issued for the Eat Out To Help Out scheme and the COVID-19 loan repayment program.
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