Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when his Department first implemented a policy for imposing targets for deportation of illegal immigrants; and whether the Home Secretary had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on that policy at that time.

The background to targets for removals and my Department’s current approach is set out in Sir Philip Rutnam’s letters to the Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, dated 14 May and 25 June 2018 that are deposited in the House Library.