Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many lorries were (a) routinely searched and (b) searched for illegal immigrants at English ports in each of the last three years; and if she will make a statement.

This information is not held centrally.

Border Force operates a multi-layered search regime using a range of interventions to screen all freight vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed ports.

This includes the use of specialist technologies such as Passive Millimetre Wave Imaging devices, heartbeat monitors and carbon dioxide detectors as well as physical searches by sniffer dogs, Border Force staff and specialist search contractors.