People Smuggling: English Channel
(asked on 21st October 2025) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been prosecuted for offences related to people smuggling by small boat crossings since 1 July 2024.
The information requested on those identified as being involved in people smuggling activity and on prosecutions is not currently available from published statistics.
On returns, in the year ending June 2025, there were 2,330 returns of people who had arrived by small boat, this information can be found here:
The Home Office publishes data on the number of returns from the UK in each quarter in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ : https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
The latest data on returns of people who arrived by small boat crossings are presented in table Ret_06 of the ‘returns summary tables’ (of which ‘deportations’ are a subset) and can be found at the following link:
The latest data relate to the year ending June 2025.
The Home Office also publishes data on small boat arrivals, with data available in table Irr_01 of the ‘Irregular migration summary tables’ : ‘https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release’
In further publications, The National Crime Agency (NCA) publish a performance overview in their ‘Annual Report and Accounts’. This provides a summary of the NCA’s purpose, objectives and performance during the year, including information on organised immigration crime disruptions. The latest report can be found here: National Crime Agency Annual Report and Accounts - 2024-2025.