Transparency data

Asylum Support Accommodation Programme (ASAP): SRO appointment letter for Becca Jones, January 2026

Updated 2 July 2026

To: Becca Jones, Senior Responsible Owner for the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme (ASAP).

From: Simon Ridley, Second Permanent Secretary of Home Office; and

Karina Singh, Director, Function, Insight and Profession of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and the Senior Accountable Officer for Project Delivery across Government

January 2026

Dear Becca,

Appointment as senior responsible owner for the asylum support accommodation programme

We are writing to confirm your appointment as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme (ASAP) with effect from the date of this letter. This letter sets out your responsibilities and the support you can expect from your department and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

As SRO, you are directly accountable to Rannia Leontaridi, under the oversight of the Permanent Secretary as accounting officer for the Home Office, and the Secretary of State for the Home Office.

Your initiative forms part of the Home Office Portfolio, under the oversight of the Chair of the Investment Committee (InvestCo) and is included in the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP).

You have personal responsibility for the delivery of the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme (ASAP) and will be held accountable for the delivery of its objectives, policy intent and outcomes. This encompasses securing and protecting its vision, ensuring that it is governed responsibly, reported on honestly, escalated appropriately and for influencing the context, culture, and operating environment of ASAP. You are also responsible for ensuring the ongoing viability of the ASAP and recommending its pause or termination if appropriate. Where issues arise which, you are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these to InvestCo, and/or other Home Office Governance bodies as appropriate to the resolution of those issues.

You remain accountable to Ministers, as set out in the Civil Service Code, and should deliver the project in accordance with the objectives and policy intent as set by Ministers.

In addition to your internal accountabilities, SROs for GMPP projects and programmes are personally accountable to Parliamentary Select Committees. This means that, from the date of this letter, you will be held personally accountable to and could be called by Select Committees to account for and explain the decisions and actions you have taken to deliver the initiative.

It is important to be clear that your accountability relates only to implementation, within the agreed terms in this letter; it will remain for the Minister to account for the relevant policy decisions and development.

More information on this is set out in Giving Evidence to Select Committees - Guidance for Civil Servants, sometimes known as the Osmotherly Rules. Information on the roles and responsibilities of the SRO are detailed in Government Project Delivery’s guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner,

You are expected to run your project/programme in accordance with the Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery, and the requirements of other functional standards as required, which is mandated for government departments and arm’s length bodies to follow. You should also make yourself familiar with The Teal Book, Government Project Delivery’s code of practice for project delivery, and any further guidance and requirements set by the Home Office.

Time commitment and tenure

This role will require at least 50% of your time to enable effective delivery of the role and execute your responsibilities in full.

You are required to undertake this role until achievement of programme closure, planned for August 2029. Progress towards this will be reflected in your personal objectives. Any changes to the agreed time commitment or tenure of the role, as set out above, will require both departmental and National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority consent.

Alongside being the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme (ASAP), you are also the Director of Asylum Support & Transformation, and the SRO for the Asylum Transformation Programme (ATP). A separate SRO appointment letter has been developed for the ATP Programme.

Given the alignment of your responsibilities with the intended outcomes of the two programmes, it is appropriate to consider that 100% of your role is dedicated to delivering the outcomes for both programmes.

Objectives and performance criteria

The policy intent supported by this programme is that the Home Office is responsible for meeting HM Government’s statutory obligation to asylum seekers and any proposed changes to scope which impact upon this intent, the spending objectives or exceed Home Office tolerances for the realisation of benefits must be authorised by InvestCo and may be subject to further levels of approval

The vision of the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme (ASAP) is to deliver a transformed commercial and operating framework for the asylum accommodation and support system, enabling the Home Office to transition to the future state accommodation system desired by Ministers, while meeting statutory obligations and delivering value for money

The objectives of the ASAP programme are to:

• Deliver a suite of transformed accommodation and services contracts, together with a sustainable operating model, which enable the Home Office to transition to the future state accommodation arrangements agreed by Ministers.
• Define, procure and mobilise the commercial, contractual and performance management capabilities required to support a more effective, resilient and value for money asylum accommodation system.
• Replace existing accommodation and services contracts (including AASC, AIRE and FASP), addressing issues of cost, limited management control and market fragility inherent in the current arrangements.

Extent and limit of accountability

Finance and controls

HM Treasury spending controls will apply on the basis set out within the department’s delegated authority letter. Where the programme exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury, the Treasury Approval Point process will apply, and the details of each approval process must be agreed with your HM Treasury spending team. You should consult departmental finance colleagues on how to go about this.

You should note that where expenditure is considered novel, contentious, repercussive, or likely to result in costs to other parts of the public sector, HM Treasury approval will be required, regardless of whether the programme expenditure exceeds the delegated authority set by HM Treasury. If in doubt about whether approval is required you should, in the first instance, consult departmental finance colleagues before raising with the relevant HM Treasury spending team.

The overall estimated budget, resourcing requirements and tolerances for your project/programme will be agreed as part of the approval process. You will be expected to deliver within these tolerances and report quarterly on these as part of GMPP reporting.

You should operate at all times within the rules set out in Managing Public Money. In addition, you must be mindful of, and act in accordance with, the specific HM Treasury delegated limits and Cabinet Office controls relevant to the programme. Information on these controls can be found here: Cabinet Office controls.

Delegated authority

You are authorised to:

• Approve expenditure up to the limits granted by InvestCo plus stage tolerances described by Home Office Portfolio Change Control. Appropriate authority must be sought for expenditure which breaches tolerances. The CPO and Corporate Finance Director should be involved in such discussions along with the Director General of Corporate and Delivery. Funding – especially underspends - must not be flexed within or between allocations without reference back to InvestCo.
• Agree the rescheduling of delivery within the tolerances described by Home Office Portfolio Change Control. Exceeding these tolerances requires the agreement of InvestCo, and the CPO should be involved in discussions seeking such agreement; and
• Recommend to Rannia Leontaridi and InvestCo the need to either pause or terminate the initiative where appropriate and in a timely manner.

These authority limits are subject to change and other conditions or tolerances may be set as part of the business case approval and ongoing monitoring processes which you should then operate within.

You must escalate to InvestCo and DG Chief Operating Officer:

• Proposed changes to the programme scope which impact on the intent or its expected benefits realisation, or which have wider impacts for other programmes or projects, or for Home Office transformation more generally.

• Slippage or any proposed change which materially impacts on wider Home Office objectives, including ministerial objectives, or adversely affects completion of any of the programme stages or its funding.

• Issues which you are unable to resolve, including the need to either pause or terminate the programme where necessary.

Your role as SRO is a corporate responsibility and you are expected to:

• Establish and progress the programme in line with the Home Office Project Delivery Framework, ensuring the effectiveness of its governance, assurance, and programme management arrangements, including:
  • Appointing, chairing, and setting priorities for the programme Board.
  • Ensuring the effectiveness and performance of the programme organisation.
  • Resourcing the programme, including its PMO, to succeed.
  • Ensuring your programme’s delivery, resource & financial plans are collaboratively developed, properly integrated, baselined, and used.
  • Ensuring delivery plans contain sufficiency contingency to effectively manage expectations; and
  • Ensuring appropriate first line assurance is in place backed up by the commissioning of timely assurance and audit reviews.
• Ensure that the programme is progressed according to the Home Secretary’s agreed portfolio prioritisation, recognising that under some circumstances resource may need to be diverted to higher priority programmes and discussing with the CPO’s team any factors which may change the priority of your programme. In doing so, you will:
  • Ensure there is clarity about perceived constraints upon delivery as whether they are genuine constraints (such as imposed deadlines) or only desirable.
  • Keep a tight focus on the agreed scope and prevent the dilution of the programme’s objectives that can result from being used as a delivery vehicle for unowned requirements; and
  • Ensure that the performance of all contracts used in the delivery of the programme is monitored with suitable qualified / experienced individuals appointed to actively manage those contracts.
• Submit the programme’s business cases and other reports as appropriate to InvestCo, the NISTA and HM Treasury. In doing so, you will:
  • Monitor the programme ‘s status, its forecast timescales, costs and benefits and key risks and dependencies.
  • Report issues openly and transparently.
  • Require that the programme’s resource plans allow time for the continuous professional development of all team members.
  • Ensure that the programme’s business cases include sufficient funding for a properly resourced PMO and that you actively use the PMO to help you control the programme; and
  • Ensure that the programme’s business cases make specific funding allocations for networks, infrastructure and cyber security, should your programme need work performed on any of these areas, base these allocations on estimates agreed with the appropriate leads in Enterprise Services, and provide the funds identified for these purposes to those leads to deliver on your behalf.

• Ensure that the programme’s anticipated impacts upon business-as-usual operations are informing forecasts of those operations, including workforce planning, and running costs.

• Lead the programme in a way which maximises delivery of shared corporate capabilities, for use across the Home Office and wider government.

• Ensure that Home Office data management principles are adopted in taking forward the programme to ensure that data is collected and stored in such a way as to enable sharing and reuse where appropriate, that it is protected in line with GDPR requirements.

• Set and track goals in relation to technical debt remediation, and ensure specific budgets are in place to support such goals.

• Take account of Home Office and wider government initiatives.

• Ensure that any legacy systems replaced by the programme are decommissioned as appropriate.

Appointments

You have appointed a full time Programme Director to support you in the management of this programme and should make other appointments as required for the control and delivery of your programme within your delegated authority.

Scope, boundaries and relationship with the Asylum Accommodation Programme (AAP)

The ASAP programme is responsible for the design and delivering transformed contractual arrangements and an operating model for asylum accommodation and associated services. These deliverables will enable the Home Office to transition to the future state accommodation system.

ASAP does not hold responsibility for the direct delivery, ownership, or operation of physical accommodation assets, nor for accommodation provided through other programmes.

The Programme business cases confirm the following areas are out of scope for ASAP and fall instead within the Asylum Accommodation Programme (AAP) or other relevant programmes:

• The direct sourcing, acquisition, or development of accommodation assets by the Home Office, whether undertaken independently or in partnership with Local Authorities, MHCLG, or other bodies

• The operation of services within collective accommodation delivered through AAP led interventions.

As SRO for ASAP, you remain accountable for delivering the commercial and operational enablers required to support the future state. However, you are not accountable for the ownership, sourcing, or operational delivery of accommodation assets, which will be undertaken through AAP.

Governance and assurance

You should pay attention to ensuring effective governance for your programme, including the establishment of a programme board with appropriate membership and clear terms of reference.

As primary owner, you must ensure that the programme secures business case approval from InvestCo and HMT. You should also ensure that the programme remains aligned to the strategic outcomes, costs, timescales, and benefits in line with the approved business case as well as monitoring the context within which the programme is being delivered to ensure it remains valid.

Where a change impacts the scope, costs, benefits, or planned delivery milestones agreed as part of an agreed business case, you are responsible for following the agreed change request approval process and setting a new, approved, business case baseline.

You should ensure that an accounting officer assessment is completed alongside the approval of the Outline Business Case and that this is published on GOV.UK as part of the government’s transparency requirements on major projects. You are responsible for bringing to the attention of the accounting officer any material changes in the programme which could require a new accounting officer assessment to be completed and published. Guidance on completing accounting officer assessments for major projects is available from HM Treasury.

You are responsible for providing assurance to the accounting officer and relevant oversight bodies that the Environmental Principles Policy Statement legal duty has been considered by ministers in policy decision underpinning the programme.

Although you are directly accountable for this programme, you are also expected to support delivery of the department’s overall strategic objectives. This means that you are expected to work collaboratively with other SROs and project directors in adjacent projects and programmes and with the Home Office portfolio management office and portfolio director to manage dependencies, resources, schedules, and funding to support delivery of the overall change the department needs to achieve its strategic objectives.

You should ensure that appropriate and proportionate assurance is in place and agree on the level and frequency of assurance reviews through the maintenance of an integrated assurance and approvals plan. You should develop this plan and its maintenance in collaboration with the Departmental Assurance Coordinator and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

Programme status, reporting and transparency requirements

The programme status at the date of your appointment is reflected in the most recent quarterly return on the programme to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority and is the agreed position as you assume formal ownership of the programme.

You are responsible for ensuring the honest and timely reporting on the position of the programme to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority while it remains on the GMPP and for providing reports and information to the Home Office’s Customer Service Group portfolio management office as required. Reporting should include carbon measurement, and other sustainable development goals demonstrating evidence that the project contributes to an overarching environmental strategy and is aligned with defined Net Zero pathways. Information on the programme will be published annually by the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority.

You are responsible for publishing on GOV.UK a summary of the accounting officer assessment completed in line with the approval of the Programme Business Case and summaries of any subsequent assessments should they be required. You are also responsible for registering all planned, live and completed evaluations on the Government Evaluation Registry. Guidance on using the evaluation registry is available on GOV.UK.

Development and support

As a graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy, you are expected to maintain your continuing professional development as a project leader, including your status as an accredited assurance reviewer. To maintain your accreditation, you will be required to participate in a review at least once every 12 months.

The department will assist you in securing the necessary resources to support the programme, and will set clear guidance, requirements and standards, which align to the Government Functional Standard on Project Delivery, to enable good governance and effective delivery. You will be part of the department’s cohort of major project leaders who will be expected to support each other, share good practice and lessons learned and to collectively develop solutions. You should liaise with the department’s Head of Profession for project delivery to discuss the maintenance and development of your delivery and leadership skills.

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority will be available to you for support, advice, and assurance throughout the programme’s time on the GMPP.

Following approval of the business case and entry onto the Home Office Portfolio, the Portfolio and Project Delivery Directorate will provide ongoing oversight and support and will take steps to help resolve and escalate risks, issues or constraints that are acting as a blocker to successful delivery.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you every success in your role as SRO.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Ridley

Second Permanent Secretary, Home Office

Karina Singh

Director, Function, Insight and Profession National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority

Senior Accountable Officer for Project Delivery across Government

Confirmation of acceptance of appointment

I confirm that I accept the appointment of Senior Responsible Owner for the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme, including my personal accountability for implementation, as set out in the letter above.

Becca Jones

25th June 2026