As not a single return has been made under Labour’s much-vaunted “one in, one out” deal, the government can’t even say how many staff in the Home Office are actually working on deportation flights. When pressed in a written question, Home Office minister Alex Norris admitted:
“It is not possible to disaggregate staffing figures to isolate those solely focused on deportation flights and obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams. The Home Office does not hold any central record of the requested information.”
In a separate written answer on what proportion of staff are dedicated to enforcing deportation orders, the response was similarly blunt: the department does not hold that data. Co-conspirators will recall Labour’s manifesto pledge to “set up a new Returns and Enforcement Unit comprising 1,000 extra Home Office staff” – a promise that has gone rather quiet. Is it any wonder flights haven’t taken off…