Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the deportation flight scheduled for Rwanda at 22:30 on 14 June 2022 from Stansted Airport, what the cost of that flight to the public purse is; and whether the Government has taken steps to ensure that there will be no cost to the public purse in the event that no deportee is a passenger on that flight.

Our priority will always be to keep our communities safe, and we make no apology for seeking to remove those with no right to remain in the UK.

Charter flight operations are an important means to remove individuals with no right to remain in the UK where there are limited scheduled routes. We manage the charter programme flexibly, balancing it with use of scheduled flights to best respond to operational needs. Costs for individual flights will vary based on a number of different factors and are regularly reviewed to ensure that best value for money is balanced against the need to remove those individuals with no right to remain in the UK.

The endless merry go round of late legal claims – which are often unfounded or without merit – can result in people being removed from flights at the last minute. However, our New Plan for Immigration will stop the abuse of the system and expedite the removal of those who have no right to be here.