Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been convicted of offences under section 24(1)(b) of the Immigration Act 1971 in each of the last five years.

The table below provides the number of defendants proceeded against for offences under Section 24(1)(b) of the Immigration Act 1971 in England and Wales from 2009 to 2013.

The statistics on defendants proceeded against for offences under Immigration Acts 1971 to 2007 in England and Wales are supplied by the Ministry of Justice for the Home Office to publish annually within Immigration Statistics. Annual data is available in the latest release, Immigration Statistics: April – June 2014, table pr_01, from the Library of the House and from the GOV.UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-april-to-june-2014.

The new Immigration Act makes it harder for people to live in the UK illegally. It makes it harder for illegal immigrants to abuse our benefits and public services, and makes it easier for us to remove them by reducing the number of appeals.