Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the compatibility of potential plans to turn back small boats in the English Channel with international legal frameworks to which the UK is committed.

The Government considers all safe and legal options to stop unnecessary journeys to the UK including turning small boats around in the English Channel.

This approach fully complies with both the domestic and international legal frameworks to which the UK is committed. However, there are limited circumstances in which small boats can be turned around safely in the English Channel. In view of this, the policy is currently withdrawn and there are no current plans for the turnaround tactics to be reintroduced under Defence primacy.