Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have used the Assisted Voluntary Return service since it re-opened in July 2020.

The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’.

Data on the number of ‘Voluntary returns’ including ‘Assisted returns’ from the UK are published in Table Ret_01 of the Returns summary tables. More detailed breakdowns of the data are available in the Returns detailed datasets.

'Assisted returns' relate to those where people liable to removal from the UK, who wish to leave voluntarily, make an application to the Assisted Voluntary Returns Service.

The published statistics relate to the number of returns from the UK, and may not include all those who have used the voluntary return service (such as those who are awaiting a return, or who did not qualify for the service).

The latest data on returns relates to the year ending June 2020. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on returns.

Figures on the number of people returned in the year ending September 2020 will be published on 25 February 2021.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.