§ Mr. Keith HillTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if illegal immigrants described as yardies have been allowed to remain in the United Kingdom in order to act as informers for the Metropolitan police in the period since January 1993. [19664]
§ Mr. KirkhopeThe management and use of informants are operational matters for the police. It is police practice never to confirm or deny whether someone is an informant.
Although there may be exceptional circumstances in which it is in the public interest, in the handling of immigration cases, to take account of an individual's assistance to the authorities, there is no general policy of allowing illegal entrants to remain in this country because they have agreed to provide information to the police.