Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were deported to France in each year since 2020.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics quarterly release’. Data on returns by return type and destination can be found in Ret_D02 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’. Data on returns of FNOs by destination can be found in Ret_D04 of the same file. This data covers the period 2004 to September 2025. For future publication dates, please see the release calendar.
Deportations are a subset of published FNO returns relating to the removal of those who are subject to a Deportation order. FNO returns that are not deportations will generally be cases where a person is being returned for a breach of UK immigration laws or for not being able to demonstrate any lawful basis to remain in the UK.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were deported to Germany in each year since 2020.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics quarterly release’. Data on returns by return type and destination can be found in Ret_D02 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’. Data on returns of FNOs by destination can be found in Ret_D04 of the same file. This data covers the period 2004 to September 2025. For future publication dates, please see the release calendar.
Deportations are a subset of published FNO returns relating to the removal of those who are subject to a Deportation order. FNO returns that are not deportations will generally be cases where a person is being returned for a breach of UK immigration laws or for not being able to demonstrate any lawful basis to remain in the UK.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of times migrant smuggling content has been viewed before being taken down as a result of action from the Home Office over the past 12 months.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office and the National Crime Agency work with major social media companies to rapidly remove online adverts which promote organised immigration crime and since 2024 more than 18,000 posts, pages or accounts advertising organised immigration crime services have been removed. Under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act a new offence will be introduced which criminalises the creation or publication of online content which promotes unlawful immigration services which could include videos of small boat crossings, the promotion of fake travel documents like passports and visas, or explicitly promising illegal working opportunities in the UK.
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of times migrant smuggling content may have been viewed.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign nationals have been removed from the UK in each of the last five years for involvement in, incitement of, or support for extremist Islamist ideology.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer of 28 October 2025 to Question 84090: Asylum, whether those charities are consulted on the development of immigration policy.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office maintains regular engagement with a wide range of stakeholders on asylum and immigration matters. Their input is valued; however, external advice is considered advisory and does not determine policy.
Ministers are responsible for setting Home Office policy.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the National Asylum Stakeholder Forum is consulted on the development of immigration and asylum policy.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office maintains regular engagement with a wide range of stakeholders on asylum and immigration matters. Their input is valued; however, external advice is considered advisory and does not determine policy.
Ministers are responsible for setting Home Office policy.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many meetings she has had with a) National Asylum Stakeholder Forum and b) the Strategic Engagement Group in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The National Asylum Stakeholder Forum and the Asylum Strategic Engagement Group both meet four times a year.
The Home Secretary has not attended these meetings in the past 12 months. Home Office officials attend on her behalf.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant of Answer of 22 December 2025 to Question 99417: Undocumented Migrants, what steps she is taking to strengthen sanctions against illegal migrants once they have been relocated and detained.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Where an absconder is located, they may be arrested and detained for the purposes of removal. It is generally in the public interest to pursue the removal of those with no permission to be in the UK.
Where detention is not appropriate, a person may be released on immigration bail as an alternative to detention, allowing the Home Office to maintain contact with those who require permission to be in the UK but do not have it whilst a decision is made on their case or pending their removal or deportation.
A person who is subject to immigration bail is required to comply with one or more bail conditions. Conditions may include a requirement to report regularly to the Home Office, to reside at a specific location, to be electronically monitored and a restriction on work. The number and type of immigration bail conditions imposed will vary depending on the circumstances of the individual case. A person who has previously absconded is likely to have more stringent bail conditions imposed.
Where someone fails to comply with their bail conditions, they may be arrested, detained, have their bail conditions varied to be more stringent, or they can be arrested for the criminal offence, which is punishable by a fine or term of imprisonment.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her department holds an estimate of the number of criminals in the UK that arrived in the country by irregular means.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information you have requested regarding the number of foreign criminals in the UK who arrived by irregular means is not available from published statistics.
However, foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.
The latest published information shows that in the year-ending October 2025, 5,430 foreign national offenders (FNOs) were returned, which is an increase of 12% compared to the number of FNO returns in the same period 12 months prior.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the average cost to the public purse of deportations in each year since 2020.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information you have requested about the average cost of deportations of foreign national offenders (FNOs) is not available from published statistics, as we do not publish these costs.
The Home Office publishes all available information on expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and accounts, which can be found here: Home Office annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK.
Over 7,000 FNOs have been returned from the UK under this government, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.
Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.
The Home Office makes no apology for the fact that its priority will always be to keep our communities safe. As such, we are fully committed to making our communities safer by deporting foreign nationals who break our laws.