Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that one in 12 residents of London are “hidden and transient”, which includes people living at secondary addresses, visitors and tourists and irregular migrants.

The Noble Lord will wish to be aware that those media outlets who published those reports have subsequently published corrections accepting that they were not accurate. Estimates of the illegal population are inherently uncertain, and no current accurate assessment is available.

Robust procedures are in place to ensure that individuals with no right to be in the UK are removed, either voluntarily or through enforcement action.