Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) detainees, (b) security guards and (c) independent witnesses were on board the deportation charter flight from Stansted Airport to West Africa on 24 May 2016.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office records indicate that, on the 24th May charter to Nigeria & Ghana, 47 detainees were returned with 118 escorts. On this particular flight there were no independent observers.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people on removal flights from the UK in the last 12 months had (a) lived in the UK for over 20 years and (b) still had family in the UK when they were removed.
Answered by James Brokenshire
This information is not captured in our standard reports. To obtain this would require a manual search of the Home Office Case Information Database. The Information requested could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost to the public purse of deportation by chartered flights has been in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office records indicate that the cost of chartering aircraft for removal flights over the past 5 years is as follows:
2011/12 - £8.5 million
2012/13- £13.8 million
2013/14 - £12.7 million
2014/15 - £13.2 million
2015/16 - £9.1 million
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what comparative assessment she has made of the cost to the public purse of deportations on chartered flights and commercial flights.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Home Office conducts a cost comparison between charter flights and commercial flights every 6 months.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many flights for the purposes of deporting people whose asylum or human rights claims were refused were chartered by the Government in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office charter flights are used to remove individuals who have been refused asylum in the UK, but also individuals who have committed other immigration and criminal offences. Home Office records indicate that there were 45 charters in 2012, 48 in 2013, 46 in 2014, 38 in 2015 and 18 to date in 2016.
In addition to charter flights the Home Office also removes people via scheduled commercial services.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign nationals that had been held in UK prisons were removed on chartered deportation flights in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office records indicate that there were at least 1999 foreign nationals who, having been detained in a UK prison, were removed on charter flights in the past 5 years; 367 in 2012, 424 in 2013, 498 in 2014, 486 in 2015 and 224 in 2016 to date.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Immigration Enforcement charter flights are regularly monitored by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) and the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on having independent witnesses and monitoring groups aboard mass deportation charter flights.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office records indicate that there were at least 1999 foreign nationals who, having been detained in a UK prison, were removed on charter flights in the past 5 years; 367 in 2012, 424 in 2013, 498 in 2014, 486 in 2015 and 224 in 2016 to date.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Immigration Enforcement charter flights are regularly monitored by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) and the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's practice is for the number of security guards per detainee aboard mass deportation charter flights.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Prior to each charter a risk assessment is undertaken for each detainee. This assessment will take into consideration many factors including history of non-compliance and medical issues. This information will be shared with the Home Office’s overseas escort provider, Tascor, who will make a decision on the necessary detainee to escort ratio.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been forcibly removed on chartered flights in 2016 to date; and how many of those people had a criminal conviction in the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office records indicate that 718 individuals have been forcibly removed on charter flights in 2016. In at least 194 of these cases the primary reason for return was a criminal conviction in the UK.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is her Department's policy to prepare for the removal of asylum seekers from the UK before they have exhausted all legal remedies in their claim for asylum.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Section 77 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 prevents a person from being removed from the UK whilst a claim for asylum is pending, and section 78 of the 2002 Act has the same effect where an appeal is pending. In both cases this does not prevent the giving of directions for the person’s removal or the taking of any other interim or preparatory action.
Where a person has claimed asylum and the claim has been refused preparations for removal can be made. Those preparations may involve gathering relevant information and applying for an emergency travel document.