What does the pledge mean? 

Labour’s manifesto says the purpose of the new returns and enforcement unit is to “fast-track removals to safe countries for people who do not have the right to stay here”.

This would include asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected, foreign national offenders and other people who are in the UK without the right to be here.

The manifesto commitment is for a “new” unit to be created, with 1,000 “additional” staff. It’s not clear whether this meant redeploying existing civil servants to work in the new unit, or if the pledge means the government is committed to recruiting 1,000 newly hired staff.

We asked the Home Office about this in October and November 2024, March 2025 and again in February 2026, but haven’t heard back.

During the election campaign, Labour appears to have referred to recruiting staff in regards to this pledge at least twice. In a press release issued by the party on 7 June 2024, it said: “Labour will recruit over 1,000 Home Office caseworkers to clear the record Tory backlog, and a further 1,000 staff for a new returns unit”.

On 9 June 2024, The Telegraph reported then-shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that Labour would set up “a new returns and enforcement unit in the Home Office, recruiting 1,000 new officers”. Labour’s manifesto was launched on 13 June 2024, but it was signed off on 7 June.

What progress has been made?

We’re rating this pledge as “unclear or disputed” as it’s not clear whether or not a new “unit” has been established.

The government has said that 1,000 more FTE staff are now working on returns and enforcement, although this figure appears to primarily refer to redeployed staff.

We’ve asked the Home Office on multiple occasions whether a new returns and enforcement unit has been set up, but have received no response.

The term “returns and enforcement unit” hasn’t appeared on the government’s website since July 2024, though references have been made by the government in Parliament to a “returns and enforcement programme”. In November 2024 Ms Eagle referred to a “new Returns Transformation Portfolio” when asked if there was a name for the “Returns and Enforcement programme”, though this term doesn’t appear to be used on the government’s website.

In August 2024 the Financial Times reported that 300 people had been hired to a returns and enforcement unit in the Home Office. However subsequent statements by government ministers suggest that the 1,000 staff working on returns and enforcement have been redeployed from other roles.

In a response on 21 October 2024 to a written question about recruitment to the unit, home affairs minister Lord Hanson said the government was “redeploying significant numbers of staff to a returns and enforcement programme” but did not provide a precise number.

When asked about this again in April 2025, Lord Hanson only referred back to his answer from October 2024.

In June 2025, then-asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said 1,000 FTE staff had been redeployed by the Home Office to “increase delivery of the government’s returns and enforcement priorities”, and that the staff had been “drawn from across the Department”, including those who had worked on the Rwanda scheme.

A similar response was given in another written answer by Lord Hanson in December 2025.

The Home Office’s annual report and accounts for 2024/25 said: “Improved performance was supported by redeploying 1,000 staff to focus on returns and enforcement activity.”

The report does not list a specific “returns and enforcement unit” in its breakdown of staff numbers, but it does show that the number of staff working in “immigration enforcement” more broadly increased by just over 1,800 between 2023/24 and 2024/25 (we don’t know how much of this increase took place under Labour).

We’ve asked the Home Office if any new recruitment took place, as well as whether or not the 1,000 FTE staff were in a specific new unit.