Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 4 June (HL7632), whether breaching a deportation order constitutes a specific criminal offence; and if so, on what basis the provision of information on the number of such breaches meets the criterion for disproportionate costs.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

It is a criminal offence under section 24(A1) of the Immigration Act 1971 to knowingly enter the United Kingdom in breach of a deportation order. The offence attracts a maximum sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment.

When assessing breaches of the disproportionate cost threshold, consideration is given to the volume of case records that would need to be reviewed and the time it would take to review those cases which is calculated at a flat rate of £25 per hour.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 4 June (HL7632), how many people who have been deported from the United Kingdom after (1) asylum application refusal, or (2) completion of a prison sentence, have returned to the UK (a) as illegal entrants in breach of their deportation arrangements, and (b) following completion of a sentence overseas, in the past year.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The requested data is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total cost of providing free prescriptions of colostomy and ileostomy related products in 2023–24.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

It is not possible to estimate the total cost to the National Health Service of providing free prescriptions for colostomy and ileostomy related products. NHS patients pay a fixed charge for each prescription item dispensed in primary care, unless they are exempt from prescription charges or hold a valid pre-payment certificate (PPC).

In 2023/24, there was a total of 1,299,650 items with a total Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) of £239,280,020 dispensed to patients in the community in England, where the item prescribed was clearly named as colostomy or ileostomy appliances, for which no NHS charges were collected at the point of dispensing. This total includes items where no charge was collected due to a patient holding a valid PPC. This total excludes a large number of other stoma appliances that could not be clearly identified as colostomy or ileostomy from their name, although some of these other appliances will be used as colostomy or ileostomy appliances. The NIC is the basic price of a product excluding VAT. It does not take account of discounts, dispensing costs, fees, or allowances paid to pharmacists and appliance contractors for the services they provide to the NHS, or prescription charge income received, where the single charge or PPC fee is paid, or foregone where prescriptions are dispensed free of charge.

Found: Letter dated 03/07/2025 from Lord Katz to Lord Campbell-Savours regarding a supplementary question raised