Government drops plans for new immigration returns unit promised in manifesto

Ministers have decided not to establish a new immigration returns and enforcement unit, despite Labour making a clear commitment to do so in its 2024 election manifesto, a Full Fact Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.

Our Government Tracker is monitoring progress on a wide range of pledges made by Labour in its manifesto, as well as by the government since.

This includes the pledge on page 17 of the manifesto which states: “Labour will set up a new returns and enforcement unit, with an additional 1,000 staff, to fast-track removals to safe countries for people who have no right to stay here.”

We’ve been asking the government for months for an update on this pledge. As of last month we were rating it as “Unclear or disputed”, because we simply hadn’t been able to ascertain whether a new unit had been created, despite asking the Home Office on multiple occasions.

However we now know that the government has decided not to create a separate new unit, though the Home Office says it has redeployed the equivalent of 1,000 full-time staff to work on returns and enforcement.

The government’s FOI response

Last month, we submitted an FOI request to the government asking what was going on.

In reply, the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement Secretariat told us the government had “established a new returns and enforcement programme”, adding: “Returns and enforcement activity falls to various parts of the Home Office, and in particular to Immigration Enforcement, Visas, Passports, Citizenship and Resettlement Services, Asylum Group and the Border Security Command.

“Ministers decided to enhance those existing capabilities rather than establish a separate unit, and in light of that decision, I can confirm that the Home Office redeployed the equivalent of 1,000 full-time staff from across the Department to increase delivery of the Government’s returns and enforcement priorities.”

In light of this response, and the fact the government has decided not to establish a separate immigration returns and enforcement unit, our Government Tracker is now rating this pledge as “Not kept”.

Immigration returns under Labour

Despite no new unit being established, the number of immigration returns has increased since Labour entered government.

Between 1 July 2024 and 31 January 2026, 58,539 returns (both voluntary and enforced) took place (Labour won the election on 4 July 2024). This is a 31% increase on the previous 19-month period.

Dr Mihnea Cuibus, researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, told Full Fact: "Staffing has increased under the current government and this may be one factor behind the increase in returns in 2024/25. However, it is hard to know how much of the increase results from higher resources, especially since returns numbers were already on an upwards trajectory before Labour was elected.”

He also told us: “Enforcement resources appear to matter, but we are not aware of any reason to believe that a new unit was necessary to increase returns.”

It’s not clear exactly when ministers decided not to establish a new unit. On 17 July 2024, shortly after Labour took office, a government press release said a “new returns and enforcement unit” was being set up in the Home Office. However the term “returns and enforcement unit” doesn’t seem to have appeared on the government’s website since.

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

In November 2024, then-border security and asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle MP referred to a “new Returns Transformation Portfolio” when asked if there was a name for the “Returns and Enforcement programme”, though we couldn’t see this term used on the government’s website.

But a few months later, the then-parliamentary under secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, Sir Nicholas Dakin MP, did refer to a “new returns and enforcement unit” in response to a written question.

We’ve asked the Home Office about this pledge several times since the election, and most recently asked it last month to confirm whether the unit had been set up, but didn’t hear back.

Last week we asked the Labour party and the Home Office for further information on why ministers decided not to establish a separate unit, and we will update this article if we hear back.