Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 10 May (HL Deb, col 1924), what evidence they have collected since 2014 that leads them to conclude that excluding children from immigration detention would "incentivise the people smugglers" to target children to smuggle to the UK.

The purpose of the Illegal Migration Bill is to prevent and deter all unlawful migration, and in particular migration by unsafe and illegal routes. Those who arrive illegally will be liable to detention and will be swiftly removed to their home country or to a safe third country.

The organised people smuggling criminal gangs can be expected to exploit any exceptions or loopholes in the scheme provided for in the Bill, a point made by a number of noble Lords at Second Reading. An economic impact assessment will be published for the Bill in due course.