Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Border Force staff have been deployed on operational duties at Dover on Christmas Day in each of the last four calendar years; and whether her Department has been made arrangements to provide those staff with a Christmas meal in each of those years.

For security reasons, we do not give out figures of how many staff are working at a given time or on a specific operational deployment. Border Force keeps its resourcing and staffing numbers under constant review in light of passenger arrival data provided by carriers and port operator including Christmas Day

We can confirm no arrangements were made regarding the provision of Christmas meals to Border Force staff working in Dover on Christmas Day.