Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the number of small boat crossings since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Border Security Command was established to provide strategic leadership in tackling small boats, ensuring our approach is informed by a single and shared understanding of the threat through the integrated use of intelligence, assessments, data and evidence. The Command has an established process for monitoring and evaluating work underway, including assessing delivery and monitoring trends in arrivals. The Government keeps all options to tackle small boat crossings, and the Organised Crime Groups behind them, under constant review.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to help reduce the number of irregular migrants arriving in the UK on small boats.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Border Security Command (BSC) is leading the national response to prevent small boat crossings in the English Channel.
The BSC continues to focus on tackling the organised immigration crime gangs that are facilitating small boat crossings, working with domestic partners such as the National Crime Agency, and overseas counterparts in a range of countries, to dismantle the gangs and disrupt their supply chains. This work has already led to a number of widely publicised raids and arrests, as well as agreements with France, Germany, Italy, Iraq and other key partners which will increase enforcement activity and cooperation further over the coming months.
This summer, the Home Office announced a £100 million funding injection to further strengthen existing law enforcement operations. The funding will pay for up to 300 extra National Crime Agency officers (NCA), state-of-the art detection technology and new equipment to smash the networks putting lives at risk in the Channel.
We have also signed a landmark agreement with France to prevent dangerous small boat crossings. This agreement means that anyone entering the UK on a small boat can be detained on arrival and returned to France by the UK government. The aim is to test the deterrent effect to prevent dangerous journeys by demonstrating that small boat crossings are not a viable way to enter and remain in the UK and to disrupt the organised immigration crime gangs.
Ensuring we have the right legislation in place to take robust, meaningful action to address these challenges is crucial. With this in mind, the UK’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, currently going through Parliament, creates new powers for law enforcement through new criminal offences, expanded data-sharing capabilities and an improved intelligence picture to identify, intercept, disrupt and prevent serious and organised crime, including tackling those who facilitate small boats crossings.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect the first returns of illegal migrants to take place under the UK-France Returns Agreement.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Under the UK France returns agreement, the first arrivals have already been detained and readmission requests referred to France. We expect the first returns to start in the coming weeks.
The Home Office will provide further updates in due course.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they reimburse the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for assistance with boats bringing migrants across the Channel; and, if so, what is the basis for that reimbursement; and what is the total cost to date.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
HM Government does not reimburse the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) for any Search and Rescue (SAR) activity and does not differentiate the SAR response to small boats crossing the Channel from any other type of SAR.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of life jackets recovered from small boat crossings since 4 July 2024; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of their disposal.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not centrally held, and could only be collected and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The majority of life jackets seized arrive in very poor condition and may be damaged during the recovery process, and are disposed of by Border Force’s approved contractors and, where appropriate, any suitable materials are recycled.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 4 September 2025 to Question 74064 on Undocumented Migrants: English Channel, what is the end date of the pilot.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
As set out in Article 22 (1) of the UK-France treaty, the end date of the pilot is 11 June 2026. Both the UK and France have committed to continually review and improve the process and effectiveness of the pilot, pending decisions on the long-term future of the arrangements after June 2026.
Further information on the UK-France treaty can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the process for the (a) collection, (b) storage and (c) disposal of life jackets recovered from small boat crossings.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The majority of life jackets seized arrive in very poor condition and may be damaged during the recovery process, and are disposed of by Border Force’s approved contractors and, where appropriate, any suitable materials are recycled.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with her French counterpart on intercepting small boats in shallow waters.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We continue to work closely with the French Government as they review their Maritime Doctrine so they can intervene successfully at sea and increase preventions. We are engaging extensively across the French system to ensure the earliest possible deployment of these new tactics.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of illegal cross-Channel migration on the safety of women and girls living in the UK.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s Plan for Change sets out our ambition to secure borders and control immigration. We have introduced the Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill which will give law enforcement counter terror-style powers to identify and disrupt people smuggling gangs. It will introduce a new measure whereby those who commit sexual offences which give rise to the notification requirement in Schedule 3 of the Sexual offences Act 2023 will be excluded from being granted asylum protections in the UK.
We recognise the devastating impact of sexual violence on victims and our communities and are absolutely committed to tackling sexual offences with a manifesto mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. We will deliver a cross-government transformative approach to relentlessly pursue all VAWG perpetrators in this country, under-pinned by a new strategy which we aim to publish in the autumn.
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 recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of using technology to assist with the reduction of crossings in the English Channel by (a) migrants and (b) people traffickers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government keeps all options to tackle small boat crossings and the organised crime groups behind them under constant review, including the new and emerging technologies to do so.