Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department is doing with rubber dinghies and boats seized from illegal immigrants arriving on British beaches.

Rubber dinghies and boats seized under the immigration act are stored under the control of the Queen’s warehouse. All goods that are seized that are not required for forensic and/or criminal proceedings are required to be held for a period of 12 months before consideration of disposal.

Where no claim request has been received by the Queen’s warehouse the goods will be disposed of after the required time.

Due to the duration that the goods seized are held, they have not been worthy of consideration of sale or donation due the question of their seaworthiness and significant deterioration whilst in storage.

A Statutory instrument has been developed to amend current legislation to enable the disposal of said goods in a reduced time where no forensic or criminal proceedings are outstanding.