Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people her Department has on record as being in the UK with leave to remain but no recourse to public funds in each year since 2010.

The no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition applies to millions of people, the vast majority of whom are visitors or other temporary migrants who have no need for public funds during their stay. It also applies to those without status, many of whom may not be in touch with the Home Office. We are not able to produce estimates of the total population present in the UK who are subject to NRPF

We do, however, publish quarterly immigration statistics on the number of entry clearance visas granted outside the UK almost all of whom will be travelling to the UK under the NRPF condition, and the latest figures for the year ending December 2020 can be found here: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes (publishing.service.gov.uk)

The immigration statistics data for in-country extensions from 2010 to year ending December 2020 can be found here: Extensions (publishing.service.gov.uk)

The Home Office’s Chief Statistician wrote to the Office for Statistics Regulation last July to explain why the Home Office is not able to provide a figure for the total number of people currently in the UK to whom the NRPF condition applies. His letter can be found at:
https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/response-from-daniel-shaw-to-ed-humpherson-parliamentary-question-response/

Since this letter was published, the Home Office has begun to publish statistics on the numbers of people on the family and human rights routes who apply to the Home Office to have the NRPF condition lifted, and these are available in the Home Office transparency data relating to Changes of Condition, published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-protection-data-february-2021