How many people are detained under immigration powers in the UK?
Published 21 August 2025
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Back to ‘Immigration system statistics, year ending June 2025’ content page.
Data on detentions relates to the year ending June 2025 and all comparisons are with the year ending June 2024 (unless indicated otherwise).
An individual may be detained under immigration powers under certain circumstances. This includes detention in support of the return of the individual with no legal right to be in the UK. In some cases, individuals may be detained whilst their identity is being established or where there is a risk of absconding.
1. People entering immigration detention
The number of people entering detention increased in the year ending June 2025, continuing the recent upward trend since 2023.
A total of 21,653 people entered immigration detention in the year ending June 2025 under immigration powers, 14% more than the previous year. This increase continues an upward trend seen since 2023 which followed a longer-term fall in the use of the detention estate after 2015.
Figure 1: People entering immigration detention in the UK, annual totals from 2015 to the year ending June 2025
Source: Immigration detention - Det_D01
Figure 1 shows the number of people entering detention reduced from 32,447 people in 2015 to 24,480 in 2019. The reduced use of immigration detention over this period can in part be linked to the Government’s response to the 2016 Stephen Shaw review of detention, which proposed a range of changes in the use of detention and greater use of alternatives.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic impacted detentions in 2020 and 2021, the general downward trend in the number of people entering detention continued up to the year ending September 2023. This decline occurred against the backdrop of detained individuals more commonly raising issues while in detention (such as asylum or modern slavery claims), combined with ongoing efforts to minimise the use of detention, which contributed to decisions to manage such individuals in the community rather than within the detention estate.
From 2022, the Manston immigration centre opened for initial processing of small boat arrivals. This meant that such people were no longer being held within the detention estate for initial processing, leading to a further decline in numbers entering. The new Manston facility allowed more individuals to move directly to community-based accommodation following the initial examination and checks, rather than be held in immigration detention, as was often the case up until early 2022.
The recent increase in numbers entering detention may in part reflect the use of detention to facilitate returns from the UK. The 14% increase in detention intake in the year ending June 2025 compared to the previous year coincides with a 23% rise in numbers of returns from detention (see ‘How many people are returned from the UK?’ for more information). In addition, the number of individuals leaving detention to be returned from the UK has increased from 7,981 to 9,499 over the same period.
Albanians represented a quarter of people entering detention in the year ending June 2025, having twice as many entries as the second most common nationality, Brazilian nationals.
In the year ending June 2025, Albanians were the most common nationality entering detention, with 5,475 entries. However, over the last 3 years the number of Albanians entering detention has been falling. The number in the latest year was around a quarter (26%) lower than the peak in the year ending June 2023, partly reflecting the sharp fall in Albanian small boat arrivals over the same period.
The next most common nationalities were Brazil and India, which have seen entries approximately double in the latest year to 2,724 and 2,715 respectively.
2. People in immigration detention
The number of people being held in detention under immigration powers in the UK on 30 June 2025 was similar to the number a year prior.
There were 1,808 people being held in detention (at an immigration detention facility or in prisons under immigration powers) at the end of June 2025, 1% more than a year earlier.
Figure 2 shows that while there has been relative stability in numbers held in detention over the last 2 years, numbers decreased sharply at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and fluctuated greatly during 2021 and 2022. They have since stabilised at levels similar to those seen in 2019 prior to the pandemic.
The vast majority of people detained under immigration powers are detained in the detention estate rather than prisons. On 30 June 2025 there were just 103 foreign national offenders (FNOs) detained in prisons under immigration powers in England and Wales and this number has been around 100 since the second half of 2023 when some FNOs who had served their custodial sentence in prison were transferred into the detention estate if assessed as suitable. Prior to this, the number of people detained in the prison estate had been much higher, ranging between 300 and 700.
While many FNOs subject to deportation action are detained in the detention estate and prisons, many more are managed in the community. For data on those managed in the community, please see the Immigration Enforcement Transparency statistics.
The total number of foreign nationals held in prison for criminal offences can be found in the latest prison population statistics, published by the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service.
Figure 2: People detained under immigration powers in the UK, on the last day of the quarter, 31 December 2017 to 30 June 20251,2
Source: Immigration detention - Det_D02
Notes:
- The ‘detention estate’ comprises Immigration Removal Centres (IRC), Short-Term Holding Facilities (STHF) and Pre-departure Accommodation (PDA). It is separate to those who are detained under immigration powers in prisons – these are shown separately on the chart.
- Prisons data for dates from 31 December 2022 includes prisons in England and Wales only.
The number of people in detention is a snapshot relating to a single point in time, therefore, numbers fluctuate daily. If a large number of people entered detention just before the end of a reporting period, the number of people in detention would be higher than if the same people entered a few days later.
3. People leaving immigration detention
Nearly 40% of individuals leaving immigration detention in the year ending June 2025 had been detained for between a week and a month and nearly 30% detained for one week or less.
Figure 3 shows that from 2010 to 2019, prior to the rise in small boat arrivals, most people leaving immigration detention had been detained for one week or less (37% of leavers), largely due to detention’s primary use in preparing people for return from the UK. More recently the most common length of detention has been over one week to less than one month (39% of leavers in the latest year). In contrast, the proportion of people detained for one month and over has remained largely similar throughout the period with 34% of people detained for that length in the latest year.
Following the pandemic and the establishment of the Manston facility, small boat arrivals started to be processed outside the detention estate, and detention was again mainly used to prepare people for removal.
Figure 3: People leaving immigration detention, by length of detention1, proportions of rolling annual totals, from 2010 to the year ending June 2025
Source: Immigration detention - Det_D03
Notes:
- Month duration refers to a period of 30 days.
The most common reason for leaving detention in the year ending June 2025 was bail.
Figure 4 shows that (11,082 or 51% of leavers) left detention on immigration bail in the latest year. Numbers of individuals leaving on bail were 45% lower in the latest year than in the year ending June 2022.
People are bailed for a variety of reasons, including where there is no immediate prospect for their removal from the UK, or while their asylum claim is being considered, if they have made one.
Figure 4: People leaving detention by reason for leaving1,2,3 from 2010 to the year ending June 2025
Source: Immigration detention - Det_D03
Notes:
- Bailed Secretary of State (SoS) and Immigration Judge (IJ).
- Other reasons for leaving detention include being sectioned under the Mental Health Act, entering criminal detention, being granted leave to enter (LTE) or remain (LTR) in the UK, being detained in error and people whose reason for leaving was not available at the time of publication. See the user guide for more details.
- The legend follows the same order and orientation as the stacks within the chart.
The proportion of people leaving detention to be returned from the UK is now at levels similar to those seen in 2018.
There were 9,499 cases of people leaving detention to be returned from the UK in the latest year, or 44% of total leavers. There has been a near tripling in the number of returns from detention over the last 3 years. Returns from detention are the main component of enforced returns, which have been rising steadily since the pandemic. For more information about this trend, and the reasons behind it, please see the ‘How many people are returned from the UK?’ topic.
Numbers of people being returned from Family accommodation units in PDAs are published in the quarterly Immigration Enforcement Transparency statistics.
For the top 3 nationalities leaving detention in the year ending June 2025 (Albania, Brazil, India), the majority of individuals were bailed.
Reasons for leaving detention varied across nationalities. Those featuring prominently for FNO returns such as Romanian and Polish nationals were more likely to be returned from the UK than to leave on bail in the latest year. Some nationalities who featured commonly in asylum claims statistics in the latest year, including Indians and Brazilians, were more likely to leave detention on bail.
Albanians were the most common nationality leaving detention in the latest year and are prominent across FNO and asylum claiming cohorts with a similar number returned from detention and leaving on bail. For more information about asylum claim statistics, please see the ‘How many people claim asylum in the UK?’ topic.
4. About the statistics
The statistics in this section relate to detention under immigration powers.
One individual may enter or leave detention multiple times in a given period and will therefore have been counted multiple times in the statistics.
As outlined in the intention to publish statement released by the Home Office in April, there are changes to FNO data collection and infrastructure currently underway, and once complete the Home Office expects to publish further statistics on FNOs in the immigration system.
5. Data tables
Data referred to here can be found in the following tables:
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