Undocumented Migrants

(asked on 17th January 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the second report of the Home Affairs Committee, Immigration policy: basis for building consensus, published on 15 January 2018, HC 500, what assessment she has made of the accuracy and effectiveness of hostile environments measures.


Answered by
Caroline Nokes Portrait
Caroline Nokes
This question was answered on 23rd January 2018

The Government will respond to the Home Affairs Committee report in due course

Successive Governments have introduced legislative and administrative controls on migrants’ access to work, benefits and services to prevent immigration offending, including action overseas, at the border and in-country, to detect and remove persons without permission to enter or remain in the UK and to protect taxpayer funded services.

In recent years we have introduced, extended and strengthened the set of “compliant environment” measures; putting in place a range of entitlement controls, including denying or restricting access and through taking systematic, automated action, and working with a range of delivery partners on the consequences of not complying with our laws and rules.

The compliant environment aims to: deter prospective immigration offenders; make it difficult for those unlawfully in the UK to lead a settled life; incentivise voluntary departure; and deter legal migrants from breaching conditions of their immigration leave.
We have no plans to re-evaluate these measures; however, the Government gives careful consideration to reports and recommendations produced by Parliament and the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration on the operation of the immigration system and remains committed to ensuring the accuracy of immigration data shared across Government and with key delivery partners.

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