Asked by: Matthew Patrick (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many days Border Force implemented a red rating for expected numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23 and (c) 2023-24 financial years; and in the 2024-25 financial year to date.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has interpreted the question to mean the periods 6 April – 5 April for the years quoted. The following reflect the numbers of days in each financial year where crossing attempts were considered likely given forecast weather and sea conditions.
(a) 2021-22 – 109
(b) 2022-23 – 104
(c) 2023-24 – 102
(d) 2024-27/03/2025 – 182
Asked by: Matthew Patrick (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions a small boat was recorded as entering UK waters with more than (a) 50, (b) 60, (c) 70 and (d) 80 people on board in (i) 2021-22, (ii) 2022-23, (iii) 2023-24 and (iv) 2024-25.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has interpreted the question to mean boats carrying a) 51 – 60 people; b) 61 – 70 people, and so on. The Home Office does not record this information in terms of boats ‘entering UK waters’ but as numbers of people who arrived in the UK for each individual boat.
51 - 60 | 61 - 70 | 71 - 80 | 80+ | |
2021-22 | 38 | 12 | 2 | 6 |
2022-23 | 241 | 40 | 4 | 1 |
2023-24 | 201 | 100 | 31 | 4 |
2024-25 (to 27 Mar) | 169 | 176 | 102 | 26 |
Asked by: Matthew Patrick (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) visits were made to premises where illegal working was suspected to be taking place and (b) arrests were made at those premises by immigration enforcement teams in (i) 2018-19, (ii) 2019-20, (iii) 2020-21, (iv) 2021-22, (v) 2022-23, (vi) 2023-24 and (viii) 2024-25.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available.
Information relating to the number of illegal working visits is available in the Statistics relating to Illegal Migration - GOV.UK.
Financial year | Volume of illegal working visits |
|
2019/20 | 6236 | |
2020/21 | 567 | |
2021/22 | 2069 | |
2022/23 | 4237 | |
2023/24 | 6720 | |
Information relating to the volume of arrests for these periods is not currently available.
Information relating to illegal working enforcement activity in 2024/25 will be published on Gov.uk in due course.
Asked by: Matthew Patrick (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil penalties were issued for incidents of illegal working in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20, (c) 2020-21, (d) 2021-22, (e) 2022-23, (f) 2023-24 and (g) 2024-25; and what the total value of those penalties was.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Information on illegal working civil penalty statistics has been published since 2016 as part of the Home Office Immigration Transparency Data. This can be found at Immigration Enforcement data: Q4 2024 - GOV.UK on tab CPO2.
The most recent published transparency data covers the period up to 31 December 2024.
Please note the figures are for penalties levied at the initial decision stage which may be reduced, cancelled or increased at the objection or appeal stage.
Asked by: Matthew Patrick (Labour - Wirral West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many days Border Force would have implemented a red rating for expected numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, and (c) 2023-24, if the existing methodology for implementing a red rating had been in place for the duration of those previous financial years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has interpreted the question to mean the periods 6 April – 5 April for the years quoted. The Met Office changed its assessment criteria for likelihood of crossings in May 2023. The following figures set out the numbers of days per financial year that would have been assessed as likely for crossings (so called ‘red days’) had the post-May 2023 definition been applied at that time.
(a) 2021-22 – 164
(b) 2022-23 – 159
(c) 2023-24 – 108