The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has revealed that cancelled government projects, including the Rwanda deportation scheme and the Stonehenge road tunnel, wasted approximately £6.6 billion of taxpayer money in the last financial year. The cross-party spending watchdog described the losses as a “particularly egregious” example of poor value for money.
The Ministry of Defence was the most wasteful department, incurring a £1.6 billion loss through cancelled projects in the 2024-25 tax year. The Home Office registered a £290 million loss from the scrapped Rwanda scheme, while the Department for Transport wrote off £472 million after cancelling eight road projects, including the A303 tunnel under Stonehenge.
Labour MP Clive Betts, deputy chair of the PAC, criticised the government for “complacency,” stating that hardworking taxpayers should be “rightly aggravated” by the figure. He rejected the argument that high levels of fraud and waste are simply the cost of doing business in the public sector, calling them instead “the cost of complacency.”
The report also highlighted that compensation schemes owed by the government reached £73.4 billion by the end of the last financial year, an £11.8 billion increase. Additionally, the Department for Work and Pensions reported £9.3 billion in overpayments due to fraud and errors, excluding the state pension, a problem that has persisted for 36 years.
A Treasury spokesperson defended the government’s actions, saying: “We will never tolerate fraud, error or waste - every pound of taxpayers’ money must be spent with care. That is why this government took the decision to end the Rwanda scheme and cancel unaffordable road projects to protect the public finances.” The government is expected to provide a formal response to the report in due course.
