Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted of (a) trafficking and smuggling people across the Channel and (b) facilitation offences relating to small boat crossings in each of the last five years.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of convictions, for various offences including assisting illegal immigration, trafficking and slavery, for the years 2017 to 2021, in the Outcomes by the Offence pivot tool.

However, the number of offenders who were convicted for assisting illegal immigration, trafficking, and smuggling offences across the Channel, or specific to small boat crossings is not held centrally in the Court Proceedings database. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records to identify such details would incur disproportionate costs.