HC Deb 15 February 1980 vol 978 cc849-50W
Mr. Best

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many males who have entered the United Kingdom with a limited right of entry for the purpose of marriage have, thereafter, been deported on the ground that the marriage was one of convenience, expressed both numerically and as a percentage of the total number of males who so entered.

Mr. Raison

The only readily available information is that up to 30 September 1979, 472 applications to remain on the basis of marriage were refused under the changes in the rules introduced on 22 March 1977. Information relating to the numbers subsequently deported is not readily available. 15,757 men were allowed to remain during the same period, a rate of refusal of 2.9 per cent. The number who entered as fiances was 6,052 but the refusals did not necessarily relate to applications for further stay from them.