UK government reviews use of taxpayer-funded taxis for asylum seekers after £600 NHS ride

The Home Office has ordered an urgent review into the use of taxis to transport asylum seekers from taxpayer-funded hotel accommodation after a BBC report described a 250-mile taxi ride to attend an NHS appointment that cost about £600.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the public would 'quite rightly' question why asylum seekers are being ferried in taxis at taxpayers' expense and said the Home Office was right to launch the review. He added that listeners will likely ask why such journeys are necessary.

The Home Office has said the Home Secretary has asked officials to urgently examine the use of taxis to transfer asylum seekers. The review follows the BBC account of a migrant who described a long-distance ride to an NHS check-up for a knee problem, funded by the state.

The Mail on Sunday first revealed in 2020 that millions of pounds a year were being spent on taxi journeys to ferry asylum seekers around the country, and the BBC report noted that taxis were booked at hotel front desks by an automated system. It also said migrants housed in hotels were sometimes moved between sites while keeping the same NHS doctors.

In one case described by the BBC, an Iraqi man identified only as Kadir said he would have preferred to travel by train but had no choice other than to accept the transportation provided by the Home Office. He said the round-trip taxi cost £600 and questioned whether a rail ticket might have been possible.

The report also detailed other migrants’ experiences in hotel accommodation. A migrant described as having attempted to field a claim while acknowledging there were few alternatives to the taxi service, and another described a situation in which family circumstances reportedly led some to pursue work while in Britain in ways not always aligned with official rules. The BBC noted that journalists and the public are barred from Home Office migrant hotels, but it gained access through migrant contacts who had made the journey across the English Channel from France.

The questions surrounding taxi use come as publicly funded hotels remain a flashpoint. At the end of June, just over 32,000 people were in taxpayer-funded hotels, up eight percent from the previous year, while asylum applications lodged in the year to June reached 111,084, up 14 percent on the prior 12 months. Labour has signaled its intention to close all migrant hotels by 2029, a policy position that has put additional pressure on the Home Office and its handling of accommodation for asylum seekers.

In August, Epping Forest District Council secured a temporary High Court injunction to stop migrants being placed at The Bell hotel in Epping, though the Home Office successfully challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, and the hotel remains open pending further action. The broader cost of asylum support has also come into focus: official figures show the total fell to about £4.76 billion in 2024-25, down from £5.38 billion the year before, though costs remain far higher than a decade ago when they were under £475 million a year.

Officials say the review will assess whether current taxi arrangements are the most efficient way to provide access to healthcare and other essential services for asylum seekers housed in hotels, and whether alternative options, including public transport, could be offered where appropriate. The Home Office has not provided a full data set on taxi travel when queried under freedom of information provisions, and the rate for taxi services is reportedly set under contract on a per-person-per-mile basis rather than by the meter.

As the government weighs changes, the public and lawmakers alike are watching closely how the administration will balance the imperative to deliver timely services with the need to guard taxpayer money and maintain confidence in the asylum system.