Shabana Mahmood’s radical plans to overhaul the asylum system could cause “unintended consequences” such as increased homelessness among people seeking refuge and growing case backlogs, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has concluded.

The head of the National Audit Office said that the home secretary’s policies, which are meant to accelerate case decisions and reduce appeals, would require “effective action on the bottlenecks” if they were to succeed.

A report by the independent body that was released on Wednesday found that information such as how many asylum seekers do not claim benefits or how many rejected claimants have absconded remains unknown to the civil service.

Auditors also found that “short-term, reactive measures” have shifted pressures within the asylum system over many years

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