Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding the Government provided to the French Government in 2010 for the purposes of (a) border security, (b) border infrastructure, (c) countering organised crime (d) countering people trafficking and (e) any other programmes linked to countering migrant and people trafficking activity in the Departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais.

The UK and France have for many years maintained close cooperation at our shared border and have worked to uphold high security standards. The UK has committed various funding packages to the French Government to support this work and uphold these standards.

The first payment to support this work was made by the UK to France in September 2014, totalling £14.7 million. These funds were dedicated to security improvements at the port of Calais. In 2015, both countries signed a Joint Declaration which committed £10 million towards security reviews of the juxtaposed controls and to moving migrants into reception centres across France. This was followed by payments in 2016 (£17 million) and 2017 (£36 million) to further strengthen the border and maintain the operation of the juxtaposed controls.

Most recently, in January 2018 both countries signed the Sandhurst Treaty, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to preventing irregular migration, deterring engagement with organised crime groups and people traffickers, and to the continued operation of the juxtaposed controls. As part of this package, the UK made a further commitment of €50 million, of which a significant portion has been dedicated to improving border security infrastructure across Northern France.