Overstaying is a complex issue for the Home Office. It is recognised that a substantial proportion of those in the UK without the right to be here entered the country legally and overstayed their leave. However, because responsibility for mitigating the risk and addressing the consequences of overstaying are split across different parts of the migration and borders system, and because of shortcomings in the available data on overstaying, the department is hampered in its efforts to address this challenge.
This inspection examined the efficiency and effectiveness of the Home Office’s approach to preventing overstaying and to detecting overstayers. It found that data quality issues leave the Home Office unable to estimate how many overstayers are in the UK. The Home Office recognises the limitations of some of the data and systems in use and is developing a system of ‘Counting In, Counting Out’, which it hopes will improve the recording of individuals’ movements in and out of the country. However, it acknowledges that difficulties will remain with identifying departures through the Common Travel Area.
The inspection also found that, despite the number of teams involved, the Home Office does not have a single policy or strategy for tackling overstaying, and no senior official has overall responsibility for the department’s response to it. This reflects the Home Office’s lack of focus on overstaying, as it typically approaches it in terms of its relationship to other, higher-priority concerns, such as illegal working and asylum claims. The inspection concluded, as well, that improvements to information sharing within the department – between Immigration Enforcement and visa-issuing teams, for example – could help to improve the effectiveness of the Home Office in preventing overstaying.
The inspection report contains five recommendations and was sent to the Home Secretary on 21 October 2025. I am pleased that three of the recommendations have been accepted in full, with the other two accepted in part, and that work to implement these recommendations is under way.
John Tuckett, Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
25 June 2026