35 On 10 June 2005, the Minister of State for Immigration announced that the Home Office would not be proceeding with the proposals for a network of ten accommodation centres, and on 14 June 2005, that the Home Office would not be proceeding with the Bicester proposal but was exploring the possibility of using the Bicester site as an asylum removals centre. To date, a decision is still awaited on the future use of the site.
36 Figures provided by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate indicate that by the end of March 2006, the Home Office had spent some £33.7 million on the Bicester project (see Figure 11). Of this, Home Office has calculated that around £28 million was spent on acquisition and planning and developmental work relating to the Bicester site. The Home Office told us that it could not analyse separately the consultancy costs for other potential sites, such as RAF Newton and HMS Daedalus.22
37 Some £15.5 million of the £33.7 million committed by the Home Office in respect of accommodation centres related to the contract for the main works for Bicester. The £15.5 million included some £7.6 million related to payments due in respect of design work, and termination payments of £7.9 million. The £7.9 million comprises payments in August 2005 totalling £6.1 million and £1.8 million in 2006. These termination payments include £1.1 million for value added tax.
38 One of the largest cost elements of the accommodation project was the other consultancy costs (some £10.3 million), of which £6.3 million related to Bicester. These costs relate to the project team assembled by the Home Office, staffed mainly by specialist consultants.
11 | Analysis of costs incurred on accommodation centres to 30 March 2006 | |||||
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| NOTES 1 Home Office staff pay costs have been allocated to Other sites in 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04, and to Bicester for 2004-05 and 2005-06. 2 GSL - Global Solutions Limited. 3 Other consultancy for 2001-02 includes on estimate of £400,000 provided by the Home Office. 4 Where other consultancy costs relate to Bicester and Other sites, these have been split 68 per cent to Bicester and 32 per cent to Other sites. 5 Legal and Other administration costs have been allocated to Bicester and Other sites, on the Bicester for 2004-05 and 2005-06. 6 Land acquisition costs comprise £3.25 million transfer cost of the land and £14,000 in respect of Ministry of Defence's fees, which is an intra government expense at nil cost to the taxpayer. | ||
| Total costs incurred (£'000) | of which Bicester accounts for (£'000) | other sites (£'000) | |||
Home Office civil servants pay (including Agency staff)1 | 1,864 | 616 | 1,248 | |||
Consultancy |
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GSL2 | - Design and construction | 7,559 | 7,559 | 0 | ||
| - Termination payment | 7,926 | 7,926 | 0 | ||
Other consultancy costs3, 4 | 10,278 | 6,304 | 3,974 | |||
Legal costs5 | 990 | 658 | 332 | |||
Land acquisition from MOD6 | 3,264 | 3,264 | 0 | |||
Land enabling work | 1,278 | 1,278 | 0 | |||
Other administration costs5 | 537 | 352 | 185 | |||
| 33,696 | 27,957 | 5,739 | |||
Source: Home Office Data | ||||||
39 Of the £33.7 million shown in Figure 11, £29.1 million was noted by the Home Office in its financial statements as a constructive loss (£11 million in 2004-05, £16.6 million in 2005-06 and £1.5 million in 2006-07). Included in the loss was design work commissioned from Global Solutions Limited; consultancy costs relating to the planning and application process and legal costs for public enquiries and the planning appeal process.
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22 Royal Naval Air Station HMS Daedalus.