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 commitment is for 1,000 “additional” staff for the unit. It’s not clear whether this could include redeploying existing civil servants to work in the unit, or if the pledge means the government is committed to recruiting 1,000 new staff. We asked the Home Office this in October 2024 and early November 2024, but haven’t heard back.

What progress has been made?

We’ve rated this pledge as “In progress—appears to be on track” because the government has said it has taken action towards it, though it hasn’t given any figure yet for how many of the 1,000 additional staff have been recruited.

In a response on 21 October 2024 to a written question about recruitment to the unit, home affairs minister Lord Hanson didn’t give a number, but said: “We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected and enforced, redeploying significant numbers of staff to a returns and enforcement programme enhancing the Home Office’s ability to accelerate removals to safe countries for individuals without the right to remain here.”

The fact that we’ve not been able to confirm whether this pledge relates only to the recruitment of new staff, or includes the redeployment of existing staff too, means there’s currently some uncertainty over how we will measure progress when figures are published.