The costs were racked up in drawing up the plans and in compensation for the cancellation.
 
The Home Office spent the money on plans to create a purpose-built asylum centre in Bicester, Oxfordshire, following its announcement in 2001 of a major overhaul of the asylum system to speed up the processing of applications from asylum-seekers.

Global Solutions was awarded the contract after undercutting another company, UKDS, by nearly £25m to build the 750-bed centre at Bicester, at 2003 prices.

Global's tender was £59.9m while UKDS bid £84.5m and a third company, Premier Accommodation Services, bid £69m.

In 2005, in the light of improvements to the handling of asylum applications, reduced numbers of asylum applications and rising costs of the project, the Bicester project was cancelled by the Department because it was no longer economically viable.