Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of measures to deter small boat crossings in the English Channel.

The Government’s Plan for Change sets out our ambition to secure borders and control immigration. We are committed to tackling illegal migration and the criminal networks behind it.

The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 has now received Royal Assent and the overarching impact assessment for this can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/border-security-asylum-and-immigration-bill-2025-impact-assessment/border-security-asylum-and-immigration-bill-2025-impact-assessment-accessible#impact-assessment

The Government is continuously monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of our measures in place to tackle small boats. As stated in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act, the Border Security Command will be publishing an annual report, which must state the Commander’s views on the performance in the financial year of the border security system. This is set out in the Act here:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/31/section/4/enacted

Border security is fundamental to both our national security and economic security and evaluating our approach is a critical part of that.