Small boat arrivals are down compared to last year

14 November 2023

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, newly appointed Conservative party chair Richard Holden MP said there had been an “around 25% reduction” in the number of small boat crossings “compared to this time last year”.

We’ve had a look at the figures, and while we can’t be certain exactly what periods Mr Holden was comparing, it appears the reduction might actually be higher than he claimed.

The government publishes daily figures on small boat crossings which show that, as of 7 November, since the start of the year there have been 26,699 small boat arrivals. This is a decrease of 33% compared to the same period in 2022.

Looking at the 12 months to November 2023 shows a slightly smaller reduction of 31% compared to the same period the previous year.

It’s worth noting this data is provisional.

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