To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegal immigrants have been found (a) in total and (b) at each of the main ports of entry to the United Kingdom in each year since 1997. (317764)

It is Government policy to publish border force management information at a regional level, as location specific information could provide value to those seeking to circumvent our controls.

The following table provides the number of illegal entrants detected by border force officers in the south and north regions between 2003 and 2009. These figures do not include the number of illegal immigrant's encountered in-country, and do not include those encountered at the juxtaposed borders in France and Belgium.