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Transparency data

Supplementary information on referrals to the NRM made prior to an arranged return from the UK, 2025

Published 26 June 2026

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplementary-information-on-referrals-to-the-nrm-made-prior-to-an-arranged-return-from-the-uk-2025/supplementary-information-on-referrals-to-the-nrm-made-prior-to-an-arranged-return-from-the-uk-2025

This ad hoc statistical release sets out operational management information on National Referral Mechanism (NRM) referrals made prior to arranged returns. The NRM is the UK’s framework for identifying and supporting potential victims of modern slavery. For an overview of the NRM process please see Section 2 of the Modern slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics publication.

The publication of this information supports the forthcoming Immigration and Asylum Bill. It is intended to provide the public with clear and timely statistics in an area of high public interest. The data and statistics contained within this notice are provisional and taken from live operational systems and as a result, figures are subject to further revision and change. Some of the data is manually collected and processed and therefore has not been assured to the quality level of official statistics. Caution should therefore be taken when using the statistics.

Provisional operational data relating to individuals with no legal right to remain in the country, where their return from the UK was being arranged via a charter flight in 2025, indicate that:

  • 34% (434) of returns that were arranged but failed to go ahead, involved a referral to the NRM after the return was arranged; this compares to 38% (207) over the same period in 2024
  • 76% (180) of cases which raised NRM referrals ahead of all charter flights with an NRM out of hours decision-making service were raised between the hours of 3pm on the day prior to the planned removal to 6am on the day of planned charter removal; of the total number of referrals, 15% (36) were raised post-11pm

Additional notes

  1. Arranged returns can fail to go ahead for a number of different reasons, and even if an NRM referral had not been made, a return may still have failed for other reasons. Other reasons why an arranged return can fail include factors like representations being made (for example, asylum claim or Judicial Review); disruption by the person being returned; flights being cancelled; problems with travel documentation; or rescheduling of the departure date.
  2. This data does not capture the full operational impact of late NRM-related claims on removals. In addition to late referrals, reconsideration requests following initial NRM decisions can also delay or prevent removals. Where out of hours support has been provided, this has mitigated the impact of late claims and supported planned removals, however, the data demonstrates that removals can still be disrupted in some cases.
  3. The data on the timing of NRM referrals also excludes scheduled flight removals, as well as charter flights where the Immigration Enforcement Competent Authority (IECA) did not provide out-of-hours support, including those operated solely for voluntary departures and charters to Romania and Poland.

The Home Office regularly publishes data as part of its regular quarterly statistical publication on:

One-off statistical reports have also been published on the topic including:

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