Written questions by Lowe.

Whether her Department (a) collects and (b) analyses the (i) demographic, (ii) ethnic and (iii) religious backgrounds of people convicted of grooming gang offences.

The Government continues to invest in a range of work to strengthen law enforcement capacity and capability to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation, including group-based offending. We support the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce, which has a continuous professional development offer for police forces, aiming to upskill forces and improve the investigative response to child sexual exploitation, including group-based offending. We also invest in the Prevention Programme, delivered by The Children’s Society, which works to raise awareness of child exploitation, including child sexual exploitation, through upskilling safeguarding staff at all levels and improving local system responses to child exploitation. This includes working closely with local policing partners.The Government also remains committed to continuing close collaboration with international partners to establish common global standards, share best practice and insights, and build international capacity to combat these horrific crimes.To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College.Further to my previous response, the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce has brought together the best police data that is currently available on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, in its publication of November 2024.I refer the Rt Hon Member to The Home Secretary’s statement on 16 January, which set out the actions the Government is taking forward to improve our response to and understand of child sexual exploitation and abuse that is committed by Pakistani heritage grooming gangs. This includes improving the data available on the perpetration of these crimes, as part of which the Home Secretary has asked the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to expand the ethnicity data it collects and publishes – in particular by gathering data from the end of the investigation when a fuller picture is available.The Home Secretary is also appointing Baroness Louise Casey to lead a rapid three-month audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, including what is known about the demographics of perpetrators and victims, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a comparative review of grooming-gang offences with other countries to learn best practice.

The Government continues to invest in a range of work to strengthen law enforcement capacity and capability to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation, including group-based offending. We support the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce, which has a continuous professional development offer for police forces, aiming to upskill forces and improve the investigative response to child sexual exploitation, including group-based offending. We also invest in the Prevention Programme, delivered by The Children’s Society, which works to raise awareness of child exploitation, including child sexual exploitation, through upskilling safeguarding staff at all levels and improving local system responses to child exploitation. This includes working closely with local policing partners.The Government also remains committed to continuing close collaboration with international partners to establish common global standards, share best practice and insights, and build international capacity to combat these horrific crimes.To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College.Further to my previous response, the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce has brought together the best police data that is currently available on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, in its publication of November 2024.I refer the Rt Hon Member to The Home Secretary’s statement on 16 January, which set out the actions the Government is taking forward to improve our response to and understand of child sexual exploitation and abuse that is committed by Pakistani heritage grooming gangs. This includes improving the data available on the perpetration of these crimes, as part of which the Home Secretary has asked the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to expand the ethnicity data it collects and publishes – in particular by gathering data from the end of the investigation when a fuller picture is available.The Home Secretary is also appointing Baroness Louise Casey to lead a rapid three-month audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, including what is known about the demographics of perpetrators and victims, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.

What the average award to each individual was under the Voluntary Returns Scheme; and what the total cost was to the public purse of the Voluntary Returns Scheme in each of the last five years.

The specific information requested is not readily available from published statistics and could only be obtained for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.There are long standing arrangements to encourage individuals to return to their home countries through the Voluntary Returns Service (VRS), which offers financial and practical assistance to help people leave the UK peacefully and voluntarily, in order to avoid the considerable costs involved in detaining, accommodating and forcibly removing the same individual under the Enforced Returns process.

How many travel warrants have been issued to irregular migrants in each of the last five years; and what the total cost to the public purse of these were.

Obtaining the information requested would involve checking multiple databases across multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office and, therefore, could only be collated at disproportionate cost.

How many people on bail for immigration cases have public authorities lost track of in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not readily available and could only be collated for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

What proportion of known irregular migrants the Department has lost track of in each of the last five years.

Robust procedures are in place to ensure that individuals with no right to be in the UK are removed, either voluntarily or through enforcement action.When an individual fails to engage with the Home Office or attend a reporting event, we automatically seek to contact them, and if those efforts fail, they are treated as an absconder and the Home Office works with the police, other government agencies and commercial companies to trace those individuals and take appropriate action to remove them.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing legislation to lower the threshold at which the Department has a legal duty to deport foreign national offenders.

Under the UK Borders Act 2007, the Home Secretary has a duty to deport a foreign criminal convicted in the UK and sentenced to a period of imprisonment of 12 months or more unless an exception applies. Where the automatic deportation threshold is not met, a foreign national can already be considered for deportation where it is considered conducive to the public good under the Immigration Act 1971.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of conducting a review of the number of irregular migrants resident in the UK.

Robust procedures are in place to ensure that individuals with no right to be in the UK are removed, either voluntarily or through enforcement action.When an individual fails to engage with the Home Office or attend a reporting event, we automatically seek to contact them, and if those efforts fail, they are treated as an absconder and the Home Office works with the police, other government agencies and commercial companies to trace those individuals and take appropriate action to remove them.

How many chartered flights for the deportation of illegal migrants there were in each of the last five years; and how many such migrants there were on each such flight.

The table below shows the number of flights chartered in each of the last five years, and the total number of individuals who were returned or removed on these flights.YearFlightsIndividuals2020478832021641,2982022621,5662023602,6222024663,533

How many removals of illegal migrants were (a) voluntary and (b) enforced since 2018.

The Home Office publishes statistics on returns from the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics quarterly release’.Data on enforced and voluntary returns from the UK, including the breakdown by nationality can be found in Ret_D01 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’. This data covers the period 2004 to September 2024.Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

How many and what proportion of people scheduled for deportation have absconded in each of the last five years.

Obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office and, therefore, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The Home Office does not hold any central record of the requested information.

How many and what proportion of illegal migrants have been deported following an immigration raid in each of the last five years.

Obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office and, therefore, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The Home Office does not hold any central record of the requested information.

How many people have been returned to their country of origin by the Third Country Unit in the last five years.

The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. The Third Country Unit is responsible for inadmissible asylum cases, which may be removed to a safe third country. Data on inadmissibility related removals is published in table Asy_09a of the ‘Asylum and resettlement summary tables’. These returns are to a safe third country, not to an individual’s country of origin.

What information her Department holds on how many (a) police officers, (b) officials of local authorities and (c) social workers who were found to have had knowledge at the time of grooming by Pakistani heritage grooming gangs are in positions with a duty of care towards girls.

The Government is actively working to ensure that all institutions and individuals remain responsible and accountable in protecting children from all forms of child sexual abuse. This includes compliance with existing statutory safeguarding duties, and the introduction of a new mandatory reporting duty, which will introduce criminal sanctions to drive greater accountability.In addition, the Home Secretary announced to Parliament on 16 January 2025 the further steps that the Government is taking to ensure proper accountability for those institutions and individuals who failed to take the necessary action to prevent group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation in the past, including through additional nationally supported local inquiries.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a police task force to (a) identify and (b) investigate (i) local and (ii) national officials that had knowledge of and failed to act against Pakistani heritage grooming gangs.

This Government is focused on delivering meaningful change for victims and survivors impacted by these horrendous crimes, safeguarding children, and ensuring law enforcement have the tools and capabilities to pursue and bring offenders to justice.This includes continuing to fund the work of the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce, which is working to give practical, expert, and on the ground support for local forces investigating child sexual abuse, with a focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation. The Taskforce has brought together the best police data that is available on group-based offending which was published in November 2024. In this context group-based offending includes any offence with two or more perpetrators. That data is available publicly online via https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/publications/hydrant-publications#LatestNews). We will work further with the Taskforce to improve the accuracy and robustness of the data and analysis.The Home Office also collects and publishes data annually on police misconduct cases finalised during a financial year period in the ‘Police misconduct, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin. This data is broken down by allegation category but does not cover the specific circumstances of individual allegations such as those described.Launching any investigation is a decision for the police to make. But the Government will continue to ensure that all institutions and individuals remain responsible and accountable for protecting children against this vile abuse. An important part of this includes delivering on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse recommendation of a mandatory reporting duty, which we will deliver through the upcoming Crime and Policing Bill.The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 already protects workers who wish to make disclosures about child protection or welfare concerns. In 2015 the Home Office commissioned the NSPCC Whistleblowing Advice Line, which serves as a national single point of contact for child abuse-related whistleblowing reports.

How many foreign national offenders convicted for their involvement in the grooming gangs scandal were deported; how many deportation orders failed; and for what reason.

The crimes committed by child sexual offenders, who prey on the young and vulnerable, are appalling. It is well-documented that some of those involved in grooming in the UK have been foreign nationals and others have been dual nationals against whom action has been taken to deprive them of their British citizenship in accordance with the British Nationality Act 1981.One of the Home Office’s key objectives is to protect the public by ensuring that foreign nationals who commit criminal offences are deported from the UK wherever it is lawful and practical to do so. We do this by pursuing deportation against foreign offenders (FNOs) who have committed criminal offences, managing each case through the legal process, and negotiating barriers to removal.The Home Office published statistics on immigration enforcement activity between 05 July 2024 and 07 December 2024. This can be accessed on GOV.UK on this link: Returns from the UK and illegal working activity since 5 July 2024 - GOV.UKThe Home Office often faces significant and complex challenges when seeking to return those individuals to their country of origin or lawful place of return. Despite these barriers, we are fully committed to making our communities safer by deporting those who break our laws.The Government will continue to pursue all legal options to act against the perpetrators of these appalling crimes, and to deliver justice for their victims.

How many visa applications from people with Pakistani nationality have been rejected because of their criminal record in each of the last five years.

Individuals with criminal records may automatically be denied a visa, depending on the circumstances of each case. All guidance on the use of criminality on the grounds for release can be found at: Grounds for refusal: criminality (accessible) - GOV.UK.

How many people deported as a result of a conviction for involvement in a Pakistani heritage grooming gang benefited from her Department's Reintegration Programme.

Any foreign national who commits serious crimes in our country should be in no doubt that we will do everything possible to ensure their deportation from the UK, so that they can no longer represent an ongoing risk to our communities or an ongoing burden to our taxpayers.The specific information requested is not readily available from published statistics, and could only be obtained for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

What the cost to the public purse of her Department's Reintegration Programme was in the last ten years; and how many people of what countries of origin benefited from that Programme in that period.

Any foreign national who commits serious crimes in our country should be in no doubt that we will do everything possible to ensure their deportation from the UK, so that they can no longer represent an ongoing risk to our communities or an ongoing burden to our taxpayers.The specific information requested is not readily available from published statistics, and could only be obtained for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

What recent estimate her Department has made of how many girls have been victims of Pakistani heritage grooming gangs.

The Government is working to ensure that perpetrators are pursued and brought to justice, and victims and survivors of all forms of child sexual abuse are protected and supported.The Government continues to fund the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce, which has brought together the best police data that is available on group-based offending and was published in November 2024. In this context group-based offending includes any offence with two or more perpetrators. That data is available publicly online via: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/publications/hydrant-publications#LatestNews. We will work further with the Taskforce to improve the accuracy and robustness of the data and analysis.Investigation and prosecution decisions are independent matters for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. Anyone who has been incorrectly reprimanded as a result of blowing the whistle should be raising their concerns with the appropriate authority for consideration and action. Under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA), workers who blow the whistle are entitled to certain protections, including protection from detriment or dismissal as a result of blowing the whistle, and a route of redress through the Employment Tribunals if these protections are infringed.