Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the reasons for the Office of the Immigration Service Commission having only 4 out of 224 prosecutions leading to a fine and a single conditional discharge in 2016-17; and what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of that Office in regard to prosecutions.

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) secured 16 prosecutions in the reporting year 2016/17. They were disposed by way of four immediate custodial sentences, four suspended prison sentences, two community punishment orders, four fines and one conditional discharge. (One offender failed to appear at Crown Court for sentencing following conviction resulting in an arrest warrant being issued.)

The 224 prosecutions to which you refer have been secured by the OISC since they became fully operational in 2001. The full breakdown of the sentences handed down in these cases by the Tribunal is available in their published annual reports and accounts, which can be viewed on the OISC’s website https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-immigration-services-commissioner.

The OISC’s overall performance, including on prosecutions, is reviewed on a regular basis by the Home Office.