Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of foreign nationals living in the UK unlawfully who are liable for deportation.

By its very nature, it is not possible to know the exact size of the illegal population, or the number of people who arrive illegally, and so we do not seek to make any official estimates of the illegal population. In June 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a note on ‘measuring illegal migration’, which can be found here: Measuring illegal migration: our current view - Office for National Statistics.

This government has already removed almost 5,200 FNOs in its first year of office, a 14 per cent increase on the previous twelve months (5 July 2024 to 4 July 2025) and we will continue to crack down on any foreign nationals who come to this country and break our rules.