To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegal immigrants were detected at each of the main ports of entry to the United Kingdom in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009. (319576)

It is Government policy to restrict the publication of Border Force management information to a regional level, as port-specific information could provide value to those seeking to circumvent our controls. The table therefore provides details of the number of illegal entrants detected by UK Border Force officers at UK ports, in 2008 and 2009, on a regional basis. The information used to answer this question has been taken from a live database and is suitable for management information purposes. It has not been subject to the detailed checks required to qualify as National Statistics.

In addition, the UK Border Agency, working together with its partners at the Juxtaposed Controls, prevented more than 28,000 individual attempts to cross the Channel illegally in 2008, and 29,000 in 2009.