Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 21 January (HL11926), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, how many non-visa nationals whose permission to be in the UK expired, and for whom there was no record of departure, there were in each of the past five years.

We do not currently hold any existing assured data relating to the cohort of non-visa national visitors whose permission to be in the UK has expired and there is no record of departure.

To attempt to answer the question from data we hold would require significant technical, analytical and assurance work to establish the accuracy of any data for this cohort held within the immigration system.

However, the Home Office publishes statistics relating to departures by visa holders as part of its annual Exit Checks report. Fifth report on statistics relating to exit checks - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) The report includes the percentage of non-EEA visa holders whose leave expired with no initially identified departure in time, including both people for whom there was no record of departure and people with a confirmed late departure. It is important to note that individuals with no departure recorded were not necessarily non-compliant.