To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many foreign students have been refused entry to the UK since 2001; and what the reason for refusal was in each case. (311501)

I have been asked to reply.

The requested information is only available from 2004 onwards.

Since 2004, our records show that 577,993 student applications were refused leave to enter the UK at our visa issuing posts worldwide. A further 8,629 foreign students were refused entry to the UK at the border during the same period.

The reason for refusal in each case could be obtained by a detailed examination of individual records only at a disproportionate cost so will not be provided.

These figures have been extracted from locally collated management information, using a live database, which means that it is provisional and may be subject to change.