Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her department is taking to increase the rate of (a) detention and (b) deportation for people found to be working illegally as delivery riders in Britain.

Illegal working undermines honest employers, undercuts local wages, and fuels the criminal industry of immigration crime. This government is determined to clamp down on this illegal activity in every sector; including in the food delivery sector.

Since coming into power, this government has increased immigration enforcement action to the highest level, with an 83 percent rise in illegal working arrests and a 77 percent rise in raids.

We are clear that individuals who have no legal basis to remain in the United Kingdom should leave and we remain resolute in our commitment, as set out in our Restoring Order and Control: a statement on the Government’s asylum and returns policy (November 2025), to increasing returns.

Returns and deportations of illegal migrants, including those working illegally and foreign criminals, are at the highest levels in nearly a decade, with nearly 70,000 returns recorded in the first 21 months of this government, 41% more than the equivalent period up to the end of June 2024.