Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce limits on the circumstances in which police forces can add children to facial recognition watchlists.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Facial recognition is a crucial tool that helps the police locate missing people, suspects, and those wanted by the courts.
In some cases, under the existing legal framework this includes vulnerable individuals such as missing children. When using facial recognition technology, police forces must comply with legislation including the Human Rights Act 1998, Equality Act 2010, Data Protection Act 2018, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, as well as their own published policies. For live facial recognition, police forces must also follow the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on Live Facial Recognition.
This sets out the categories of people who may be included on a watchlist. These include individuals wanted by the police or the courts, suspects, missing or vulnerable people, or those posing a risk of harm to themselves or others.In each case, inclusion on a watchlist must be justified and authorised, and must pass the tests of necessity, proportionality and use for a policing purpose.
On 4th December the Government launched a consultation on a new legal framework for law enforcement use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies. During the consultation we want to hear views on when and how biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies should be used, and what safeguards and oversight are needed.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to publish an assessment of the trial use of live facial recognition in immigration enforcement in November; and whether it will be used or trialled again for immigration enforcement purposes before the close of the consultation on a new legal framework for law enforcement use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Immigration Enforcement carried out two live facial recognition deployments in collaboration with South Wales Police and Greater Manchester Police. The Department are reviewing these operations and considering the next steps. The results of these deployments are available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many small boat crossings have taken place in each of the last ten years, including 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes daily statistics on detected small boat arrivals to the UK in the Small boat activity in the English Channel - GOV.UK(opens in a new tab) release.
More detailed published data on small boat arrivals to the UK are provided in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release(opens in a new tab)’, with the nationality, age grouping and sex of arrivals shown in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets(opens in a new tab)’, with the latest data up to the end of September 2025.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to ensure that data on illegal migrants whose whereabouts are unknown can be published in a verified form.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The nature of absconding is complicated because individuals frequently come in and out of contact. Whilst the Home Office has processes for the recording of absconder events, and for seeking to bring such individuals back into contact, the recording of information about absconders is complex and the operational systems involved do not currently support the production of robust statistics on this area.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user requests, the public resources required to compile the statistics, and importantly the quality and availability of data. The Home Office does not publish data on subjects where the information held is known to be of a quality that would be unsuitable for appropriately supporting public debate.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to establish the number of illegal migrants whose whereabouts are unknown.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The nature of absconding is complicated because individuals frequently come in and out of contact. Whilst the Home Office has processes for the recording of absconder events, and for seeking to bring such individuals back into contact, the recording of information about absconders is complex and the operational systems involved do not currently support the production of robust statistics on this area.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user requests, the public resources required to compile the statistics, and importantly the quality and availability of data. The Home Office does not publish data on subjects where the information held is known to be of a quality that would be unsuitable for appropriately supporting public debate.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to publish data on the number of migrant absconders in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The nature of absconding is complicated because individuals frequently come in and out of contact. Whilst the Home Office has processes for the recording of absconder events, and for seeking to bring such individuals back into contact, the recording of information about absconders is complex and the operational systems involved do not currently support the production of robust statistics on this area.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user requests, the public resources required to compile the statistics, and importantly the quality and availability of data. The Home Office does not publish data on subjects where the information held is known to be of a quality that would be unsuitable for appropriately supporting public debate.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been deprived of their British citizenship in each year since 2020; and how many of those (a) were born British citizens, (b) became stateless as a result, and (c) had their citizenship restored following an appeal.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on the number of citizenship deprivation orders. These reports are available on Gov.UK as part of the HMG Counter-Terrorism Disruptive Powers reports and the Immigration and Protection transparency data
However, the full information requested could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria they use to decide which asylum seekers will be returned to France under the 'one in, one out' scheme.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Regarding returning people to France, any individual who arrives on a small boat may be eligible to be detained and returned to France.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what date the Home Office received the legal action submitted by Crowborough Shield; when the Department plans to respond to that legal action; which Minister will be responsible for responding.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office takes its legal obligations seriously. The Department can confirm that it has received a claim for judicial review from Crowborough Shield. As legal proceedings are ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment further on the timing of any response or which Minister will respond.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what percentage of absconders encountered by police have been detained by police in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user requests, the public resources required to compile the statistics, and importantly the quality and availability of data.
An individual who is pursuing a legal appeal or has submitted a last–minute claim would not usually be considered to be an absconder, as they would no longer be out of contact with the department. Similarly, requests for travel documentation would not usually take place at the point that someone is considered to be an absconder.