Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2024 to Question 14503 on Asylum: Deportation, for what reason it would be disproportionately expensive to provide information on the number of flights cancelled; and if he will make it his policy to collect information on the number of flights cancelled in future.

We are determined to remove those with no right to remain in the UK – including dangerous foreign criminals.

All spending is carefully scrutinised to make sure that every pound of taxpayers’ money is spent in the most effective way.

The Government’s efforts to facilitate entirely legitimate and legal returns of people who have entered the UK illegally are often frustrated by late challenges submitted hours before the flight.

These claims are often baseless and entirely without merit but are given full legal consideration which can lead to removal being rescheduled, this, in some instances, leads to cancellation costs.

The information requested in PQ14503 on cancellation reasons, with specific reference to the costs recorded on page 193 of the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, would require a manual reconciliation of the individual cases against financial records to see if a cancellation cost was levied. This could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Home Office annual report and accounts: 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).