To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


View sample alert

Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Monday 11th March 2024

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many days in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021, (d) 2022, (e) 2023, and (f) 2024 Border Force implemented a (i) red, (ii) amber and (iii) green rating for expected numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Home Office has received regular assessments of the likelihood of Channel crossings from the Met Office since 1 September 2019.

The Home Office’s records show the following distribution of Red (Crossing attempts likely, or very likely), Amber (Realistic possibility of crossing attempts being made), and Green (Crossing attempts unlikely or very unlikely) ratings from 1 September 2019 to 6 March 2024:

Year

Red

Amber

Green

Total of days

2019

15

19

88

122

2020

103

86

177

366

2021

103

52

210

365

2022

106

63

196

365

2023

102

56

207

365

2024

12

18

36

66


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Friday 9th February 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers who arrived on small boats were on bail on 1 February 2024.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The information requested is not available in a reportable format.


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people arrived in the UK clandestinely (a) on larger vessels and (b) in a vehicle on a ferry in 2023.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Home Office publishes statistics on detected irregular arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release on gov.uk.

Data on people who have arrived in the UK on larger vessels and in a vehicle on a ferry are included in the ‘Recorded detections at UK ports’ figures on table Irr_01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of September 2023.

The Home Office does not publish the requested data in any further breakdowns.


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were detained after crossing the English Channel in boats involved in uncontrolled landings in 2023.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

There were no uncontrolled landings in 2023.

All people making these illegal, dangerous and unnecessary crossings of the Channel by small boat in 2023 were detected before reaching the UK and were placed under immigration control immediately upon arrival.


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Wednesday 7th February 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information his Department holds on the number of people who attempted to enter the UK on small boats who were (a) intercepted by French authorities and (b) returned to France in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The French authorities provide the Home Office with regular operational updates, including estimates of the number of people who have been prevented from crossing to the UK.

Home Office records show that in 2022, around 33,000 crossing attempts (defined as an individual person attempting to cross the Channel by small boat) were prevented and returned to France. This compares with around 26,000 in 2023.

The decline in numbers of crossings prevented in 2023 relative to 2022 reflects the 30% decline in overall attempts made in 2023 relative to 2022.


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy to stop all dangerous channel crossings.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Illegal Migration Act, which this Government has enacted, is an important part of our response to illegal migration. The Act marks a vital step forward to stopping dangerous, unnecessary, and illegal journeys to the UK by removing the incentives for people to take these routes in the first place.

The UK and French governments are committed to working together to stop small boat crossings of the English Channel, and in March 2023 the Prime Minister and President Macron agreed an ambitious new, multi-year, deal that will see us intensify our cooperation with the French government to prevent small boat crossings, with the aim of improving the interception rate and drastically reducing the number of crossings year-on-year. This new agreement is seeing more French personnel being deployed, supported by cutting-edge surveillance technologies and equipment; a new Zonal Coordination Centre has been established, responsible for the coordination and deployment of all relevant French law enforcement, supported by the UK and including permanently embedded British officers, and more work being done to disrupt organised crime gangs through improved intelligence sharing.

In 2023, our cooperation with France prevented over 26,000 individual crossings by small boat to the UK. Since the Joint Intelligence Cell was set up in July 2020, we have dismantled 82 organised criminal gangs responsible for people smuggling of small boats migrants.

We have developed a comprehensive illegal migration strategy to stop the boats and we are focused on delivering it; this has already seen a reduction in small boat crossings by a third in 2023.


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Monday 15th January 2024

Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he last met his French counterpart to discuss the matter of illegal migration to the UK by boats crossing the English Channel.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Home Secretary spoke to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on 21 December and during this conversation they discussed the ongoing joint efforts by the UK and French governments to stop small boat crossings of the English Channel.

The Home Secretary and Minister Darmanin have agreed to meet in the coming weeks to continue this discussion. Officials from across the Home Office engage regularly with French counterparts to continue to monitor our progress in stopping small boats, and our close cooperation with France led to a 36% reduction in small boat arrivals last year.


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Friday 12th January 2024

Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what funding has been provided to French authorities in total to combat illegal crossings of the English Channel.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The UK and France maintain a longstanding relationship on tackling illegal migration at the shared border.

Since signing of the Sandhurst Treaty in 2018 the UK has provided almost €500 million in funding to support our joint work with France to tackle small boats crossings. Please see a detailed breakdown of this funding below.

YEAR

INVESTMENT

2014/15

£14.7m

2015/16

£46m

2016/17

£17m

2017/18

£36m

2018/19

€50m

2019/20

€3.6m

€2.5m

2020/21

€31.4m

2021/22

€62.7m

2022/23

€72.2m

2023/24

€141m

2024/25 *

€191m

2025/26 *

€209m

UK-France cooperation to tackle small boats resulted in over 26,000 small boats crossings prevented in 2023, with overall small boats arrivals down by over a third compared to 2022.

*committed funding as part of 2023 UK-France Summit multi-year deal.


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Friday 12th January 2024

Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence there is that the penalties imposed on illegal migrants deter future illegal crossings of the English Channel.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Through legislation, such as the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the Illegal Migration Act 2023, we have introduced a range of measures which aim to deter those who seek to enter the UK illegally.

We set out the evidence covering this in the published Impact Assessment for the Illegal Migration Act: (Impact Assessment (publishing.service.gov.uk)).


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: English Channel
Thursday 21st December 2023

Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what UK funding has been provided to local communities in France to mitigate the economic impact of illegal crossings of the English Channel.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The UK and France maintain a longstanding relationship on tackling illegal migration.

Since signing the Sandhurst Treaty in 2018 with France the UK has provided almost €500 million in funding to support our joint work to tackle small boats crossings.

UK funding supports French authorities to mitigate the impact of illegal crossings on local communities in northern France, for example by providing port security infrastructure and funding additional law enforcement personnel to manage the presence of migrants attempting to cross the Channel by small boat in the local area.

UK-France cooperation to tackle small boats has resulted in over 25,000 small boats crossings prevented so far this year, with overall small boats arrivals down by over a third compared to 2022.