Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Hanson of Flint on 24 November (HL Deb Col 1128), what plans they have to publish information on (1) student visas revoked as a result of criminality, (2) the number of overseas students who have been deported after the revocation of their student visas, and (3) the number of overseas students detained pending deportation.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This matter was debated in the Lords on 24 November 2025, where Members voted not to mandate publication of this data. Home Office analysts are exploring what information is available and will keep the matter under ongoing review.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many foreign national offenders have been deported in each month since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Over 7,000 FNOs have been returned from the UK under this government, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.
There is no monthly breakdown available from published statistics.
The Home Office publishes data on FNO returns in the quarterly Immigration System Statistics release. Quarterly data on enforced, voluntary and port FNO returns (of which ‘deportations’ are a legal subset) are published in table ‘Ret_D03’ of the returns detailed datasets accompanying the release.
The Home Office also recently published figures on FNO returns (which include both enforced and voluntary returns) between 1 March 2023 and 31 October 2025, which can be found here: Returns from the UK from 1 March 2023 to 31 October 2025 - GOV.UK.
Work is currently underway to publish more detailed information on FNOs subject to deportation. Further information on this work can be found at: Statistics on foreign national offenders and the immigration system - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government on what basis they have amended immigration rules in respect of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) to enable EUSS status holders to obtain an EUSS (Family) Travel permit from outside the United Kingdom without updating their UK Visas and Immigration account.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Changes to the EUSS travel permit (in Appendix EU (Family Permit)) were laid on 9 December and will come into force on 30 December. They enable all EUSS status holders to obtain an EUSS travel permit where they are unable to update their UK Visas and Immigration account, for example with the details of a new travel document, from outside the UK. This will help ensure EUSS status holders are not refused boarding by a carrier, or do not experience further difficulties when Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) are enforced from 25 February 2026.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 26 September (HL10489), what estimate they have made of the cost of collecting, collating and verifying the data mentioned in the question.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
I thank the Noble Lord for his question. I am sure he will know that the Advisory Guide to Parliamentary Work published by the Cabinet Office sets out that there is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850.
The Procedure Committee recommended that the threshold “be calculated only with regard to policy team time—it should not account for any central processing in parliamentary branches or WPQ teams, or the time taken by Ministers or their advisers”.
We estimate that the cost of locating and collating any relevant information and extracting the information to meet your request would exceed the appropriate limit.
This is because in order to respond to your request for information we would need to match, collate and verify information from multiple immigration data systems owned by Home Office to multiple systems containing the relevant information on Organised Crime Gangs.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 6 October (HL10578), what international data and systems they have relied on when completing security checks, including biometric and criminality checks, for students coming to the UK from Gaza; and what assessment they have made of their adequacy in supporting such checks.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Robust security checks will be undertaken on all individuals who enter the UK through this process. Biometrics will be collected as part of the visa application process and prior to travel to the UK.
The Home Office uses various tools to detect and disrupt travel by terrorists, by criminals and by individuals excluded from the UK; previously deported from the UK; or using lost, stolen or revoked documents and visas. This includes the use of domestic and international watchlists. The Home Office works with both law enforcement and wider government partners to ensure appropriate action is taken before travel or at the border when individuals of concern are identified.
It would not be appropriate to provide further detailed information about the nature and scope of security checks.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 26 September (HL10489), why the requested data regarding migrants with suspected links to organised crime groups is not published and collected currently.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 26 September (HL10489), for what reason is the data requested not published and collected currently.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to vet for public safety and security students and dependants from Gaza who are on expedited visas and are offered temporary leave to remain in the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
As set out by the Home Secretary in her oral statement to Parliament on 1 September 2025, the Home Office has put in place systems to issue expedited visas, with biometric checks conducted prior to arrival for all the Chevening scholars from Gaza.
The Home Office is in the process of doing the same for students in Gaza who have been awarded fully funded scholarships and places at UK universities so they can start their studies in autumn this year (no later than 31 December 2025).
All visa applicants are required to provide their biographic and biometric data to enable a range security checks to be completed, including criminality checks.
The Home Office uses various tools to detect and disrupt travel by terrorists, by criminals and by individuals excluded from the UK; previously deported from the UK; or using lost, stolen or revoked documents and visas. This includes the use of domestic and international watchlists. The Home Office works with both law enforcement and wider government partners to ensure appropriate action is taken before travel or at the border when individuals of concern are identified.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support efforts by the Metropolitan Police and other forces to tackle the increase in thefts of mobile telephones.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary and Policing Minister are determined to take the strongest possible action to reduce the number of phone thefts in London and elsewhere across the country.
This is a crime that causes significant distress to victims and fuels wider criminality. That’s why we are driving greater collaboration between policing leaders, the Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London, leading tech companies and others to break the business model of mobile phone thieves.
All stakeholders must play their part in designing out and disincentivising theft, disrupting the resale of stolen phones, exploring technological solutions to make devices harder to re-register or resell, and helping the public protect themselves and their devices.
This Government will deliver real results on crime by reducing opportunities for theft, ensure offenders are caught, and victims see swift and effective action.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many migrants with suspected links to organised crime groups, including the Turkish Militias, have (1) arrived in the UK, (2) been removed, (3) been taken to secure detention centres, and (4) have been released on bail to non-secure accommodation such as hotels and hostels, in the past 12 months.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested 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.