Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were deported after having been found to have committed a criminal offence (a) in the UK since entering the country and (b) in a foreign country prior to entering the UK since 2010.

The Home Office does publish statistics on enforced returns for those who have claimed asylum since 2010. These returns are published in table RET_05 of the returns summary table which can be found at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Asylum-related returns in this summary relate to cases where there has been an asylum claim at some stage prior to the return. This will include asylum seekers whose asylum claims have been withdrawn, refused, and who have exhausted any rights of appeal, those returned under third country provisions, as well as those granted asylum/protection, but removed for other reasons (such as criminality). Asylum-related returns broken down by status is not available from published statistics.

Additionally, the published statistics refer to enforced returns which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily. Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.

Furthermore, information on someone that has been deported after having been found to have committed a criminal offence in a foreign country prior to entering the UK since 2010 is not separately available from published statistics.