Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2014 to Question 210766, what estimate she has made of the number of flights into private airfields which were not notified to UK Border Force in each year since 2010.

Border Force has significantly improved general aviation controls since 2010 with the addition of checks against flight plans, robust risk assessment and the introduction of the Operating Mandate in 2012, which sets out the checks which must be made on general aviation flights.

All private flight operators are required to provide passenger information in advance, in the form of a General Aviation Report (GAR). It is not possible to provide an estimate for how many flights arrive at private airfields without having submitted a GAR. However, Border Force carries out regular exercises to monitor compliance, and continuously cross-checks GARS received against the Civil Aviation Tracking System (CATs), which details all flights plans in and out of the UK. Any GA flights identified by CATS for which a GAR has not been received will be identified as high risk and will be met by Border Force officers on landing.