§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will institute a special inquiry to find out how many illegal immigrants are in the United Kingdom.
§ Dr. SummerskillAll reasonable and practicable measures are taken to prevent evasion of the immigration control and to detect and deal with those who have none the less entered illegally. We do not believe that these would be assisted by the institution of a special inquiry.
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§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department is taking to deport illegal immigrants who subsequently come to the notice of the authorities.
§ Dr. SummerskillThe Secretary of State may give directions for the removal of an illegal entrant. It is the normal practice to send away people found to have entered illegally since 1st January 1973, when the Immigration Act 1971 came fully into operation, unless there are compelling reasons—for example, on exceptionally strong compassionate grounds—for not doing so in a particular case. During 1975, 188 Commonwealth citizens and foreign nationals were detained as illegal entrants and 154 were sent away. In 1974 the corresponding figures were 157 and 139.
In addition, 140 deportation orders were made in 1975 under the Secretary of State's administrative power against people who failed to comply with conditions of their leave to enter, and a further 361 deportation orders were made in respect of Commonwealth citizens and foreign nationals on the recommendations of courts following conviction. The number convicted of immigration offences is not separately available. The corresponding figures for 1974 were 115 and 284.