Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Sarah Pochin (Reform UK) on Wednesday, 17 June 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 22 June 2026. It was answered by Sarah Jones (Labour) on Monday, 29 June 2026 on behalf of the Home Office.

Immigration: Enforcement

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many arrests resulted from illegal working enforcement operations there have been in each of the last five years.

Answer

The Home Office publishes data on illegal working enforcement activity, including the number of visits and arrests conducted by Immigration Enforcement teams by region.

The number of illegal working enforcement visits increased from over 6,000 in 2019 to almost 13,000 in 2025 while the number of arrests from these visits has increased from over 3,000 in 2019 to around 9,000 in 2025.

This data is published on GOV.UK alongside illegal working enforcement statistics: A full regional breakdown of illegal working visits and arrets for each year is available on GOV.UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/returns-from-the-uk-and-illegal-working-activity-since-july-2024/illegal-working-and-enforcement-activity-to-the-end-of-december-2025

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
10826
Session
2026-27
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Arrests Enforcement Immigration
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk