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Home Office

Answer

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many decisions to deport, pursuant to section 3(5)(a) Immigration Act 1971 have been taken, in the past 12 months for (i) failure to report to a medical officer, (ii) failure to support and accommodate without recourse to public funds, (iii) obtaining leave to enter by deception, (iv) obtaining leave to remain by deception, (v) assisting the entry of another person an illegal entrant and (vi) assisting the entry of another person as an asylum claimant. [93334] Mr. Mike O'Brien: 3,930 decisions to deport were taken under section 3(5)(a) of the Immigration Act 1971 in 1998. 210 of these were for breach of conditions but the records do not show the nature of the conditions which had not been compiled with. It is, therefore, not possible to identify whether any of this latter group of decisions were taken for either of the first two reasons listed in the question other than by examining the individual case files. Someone who obtains leave to enter by deception is an illegal entrant and would not be subject to deportation action under section 3(5)(a). Someone who obtains leave to remain by deception is currently liable to deportation under section 3(5)(aa) of the Act. No more than five decisions to deport were taken under that section in 1998. It is extremely unlikely that someone who had assisted the entry of an illegal entrant or an asylum claimant contrary to section 25(1) of the Act would be subject to deportation under section 3(5)(a). In those circumstances, deportation action under either section 3(5)(b) or, where applicable, section 3(6) of the 1971 Act would be more appropriate. 120 decisions to deport were taken under section 3(5)(b) in 1998 and 340 people were recommended for deportation by a court in that year, but again records are not sufficiently detailed to show whether or not the decision was taken for one or other of the last two reasons listed in the question and this information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examining each individual case file. Apart from the number of decisions to deport under section 3(5)(aa), the figures in this reply have been rounded to the nearest 10.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

93334; 336 c259-60W

Session

1998-99

Subjects

Deportation Migrants

Legislation

Immigration Act 1971

Contains statistics

Yes