§ Mr. DarlingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of persons aged 18 years or below who were refused leave to enter the United Kingdom by virtue of relationship with a person resident in the United Kingdom, and whose application was refused on the ground that they could not establish such relationship, in each year since 1975.
§ Mr. RentonThe information requested is not available centrally. Information on the total number of children under 18 years of age in the Indian subcontinent initially refused entry clearance to the United Kingdom in 1977–87 is given in table 7 of "Control of Immigration: Statistics, United Kingdom, 1987" (Cm. 415), and 770 children were refused in the first three quarters of 1988. The estimated corresponding numbers of children initially refused a certificate of entitlement to, or confirmation of, the right: of abode in the United Kingdom were negligible prior to 1986, 560 in 1986, 350 in 1987, and 200 in the first three quarters of 1988. Some applications refused initially are subsequently granted on appeal.