Undocumented Migrants: Immigration
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who arrived illegally in the UK have subsequently successfully applied for the right to remain within the last five years.
Answered by Mike Tapp
The Home Office publishes statistics on detected arrivals via illegal routes to the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on initial decisions on asylum claims from small boat arrivals is published in table IER_D03 of the ‘Illegal entry routes to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of December 2025.
We do not routinely produce official statistics on initial decisions on asylum claims by route of entry for people who arrived by non-small boat routes, or on applications for the right to remain via any non-asylum pathways.
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 needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →