Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average award to each individual was under the Voluntary Returns Scheme; and what the total cost was to the public purse of the Voluntary Returns Scheme in each of the last five years.

The specific information requested is not readily available from published statistics and could only be obtained for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

There are long standing arrangements to encourage individuals to return to their home countries through the Voluntary Returns Service (VRS), which offers financial and practical assistance to help people leave the UK peacefully and voluntarily, in order to avoid the considerable costs involved in detaining, accommodating and forcibly removing the same individual under the Enforced Returns process.