Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 8 November (HL3121), when they expect data to be available on (1) the number of staff supporting the Voluntary Returns Service, (2) the cost of the service, and (3) the number of complaints received by the service.

The Home Office does not publish the information sought at the level of granularity required.

The Home Office does routinely publish information on the total cost and breakdown of Asylum costs and productivity, and this can be found at table Asy_04 of the Immigration and Protection data.

These include the costs of managing asylum operations claims including costs associated with deciding a case, managing any related appeal, asylum operations support, potential detention and enforcement including escorting and voluntary returns. Also included are the costs of department staff and buildings and the proportionate costs of the Home Office building and managerial costs.