Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's statement entitled Latest statement in response to small boat crossings, published on 6 February 2026, what is the (a) source material and (b) evidential basis for the illegal migrants statistic; what period of time does the statistics cover; and whether it is a statistics produced by the (a) UK Government and (b) French Government.

Statistics relating to the number of illegal migrants prevented from attempting to cross the channel is published on GOV.UK at -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats

As explained in the notes to the dataset: data on preventions are operational estimates collected and provided to the Home Office by French authorities. The prevention data includes: individuals who are prevented from departing France, or those who return to France, finds of general maritime equipment, and arrests of facilitators linked to small boats crossings. Preventions data has been routinely captured since May 2024.