Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of efforts to reduce the numbers of illegal border crossings into the UK.

The Home Office’s priority is to deliver a safe and secure border and we will never compromise on this. We are relentless in our pursuit of those who seek to enter the UK illegally. Border Force have robust measures in place to detect clandestine entrants into the UK and stand ready to respond to any methods deployed.

Border Force, Immigration Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies work tirelessly, deploying to risk using tested, but continually assessed, intelligence and targeting techniques.

The Home Office publish irregular migration to the UK statistics on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-december-2023. In 2023, there were 36,704 irregular arrivals, one-third (33%) fewer than in 2022, and 80% of these arrived on small boats.