THE £1.1 billion Home Office organisation in charge of dispersing asylum-seekers around the country has been criticised in a damning report for being a shambles and unable to get on top of the job.

Poor management has been discovered at all levels of the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) with confused business practices and procedures supporting 92,000 asylum-seekers. The service is failing to deal with basic errors in processing applicants, which is damaging its overall reputation, according to an independent review.

Recruitment and training difficulties continue to dog the service and it had unrealistic expectations about how asylum-seekers would integrate into existing communities. The service was also attacked for the difficulties local authorities and others had in contacting it by phone. “NASS needs urgently to improve its operational performance and standards of customer care,” a key finding of the review says.

The Government is keeping secret the full report that reveals a catalogue of failings at the multimillion-pound organisation, headed by Freda Chaloner, on the ground that it is “advice to ministers”.

A similar report into the chaos at the Criminal Records Bureau was kept under wraps on the same ground, with ministers arguing that it was confidential advice to ministers on what needed to be done to improve the organisation.

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, criticised the Home Office for failing to publish the full report. He said: “From the scraps of information that have been released, it’s clear that NASS is in serious difficulties. If a public service is in crisis, it is the Government’s duty to be open and accountable. Ministers should publish the full report immediately.”

The extent of the problems gripping the service, set up three years ago, was disclosed by Beverley Hughes, the Immigration Minister, who demanded an action plan to improve its poor performance.

Ms Hughes set up the inquiry this year after David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, condemned incompetence over plans by the service to convert an hotel in Sittingbourne, Kent, into a centre for asylum-seekers.

The row over the hotel followed criticism that the service was putting asylum-seekers in unsuitable accommodation such as tower blocks and was failing to consult local councils.

Ms Hughes told MPs in a written statement yesterday that despite some improvements the service still had to address key issues. “They found that NASS had faced real difficulties in getting on top of its job,” she said. Ms Hughes added that that the organisation had failed to “establish a clear strategy to provide purpose, direction and governance of its activities”.

She said that it had failed to integrate properly with other parts of the asylum process and had “unrealistic expectations surrounding issues such as social integration”.

The inquiry also called for the service to be given a realistic remit by the Government and the necessary resources and political support to do its job. It needed a period of stability to “enable it to get on top of its job” plus no more government initiatives without adequate time and resources to implement them.

NASS has been strongly criticised by MPs for the contracts it has made with private agencies to provide accommodation for asylum-seekers.

A report into Landmark, a company contracted to provide housing for 600 asylum-seekers in Liverpool, said that neither NASS nor Landmark had provided sufficient attention to their needs. Landmark was awarded a contract to house single asylum-seekers in two 15-storey tower blocks in Liverpool after the flats were sold by the council because they were deemed unfit for its tenants.

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