Written question asked by Andrew Snowden (Conservative) on Wednesday, 13 May 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 18 May 2026. It was answered by Alex Norris (Labour) on Tuesday, 19 May 2026 on behalf of the Home Office.

Immigration: Enforcement

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the government is making to establish a returns and enforcement unit, with an additional 1,000 staff.

Answer: Since July 2024, the Home Office has focussed on the return of failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and immigration offenders whom the system was previously unable to progress. To support this work, the Home Office redeployed 1,000 full-time equivalent staff from across the department to establish a new returns and enforcement programme. This is focusing on delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to safe countries, through swift and fair decision making to remove people with no right to be in the UK, to ensure that asylum and immigration rules are respected and enforced.

Secondary information