MigrationWatchdog

Glossary

The system's own vocabulary, in plain English. Caveats across the site link to these definitions.

Illegal / irregular entry
Entering the UK without a visa or permission to enter. The Home Office's statistical category is 'illegal entry routes'; some people entering this way go on to claim asylum, regularise their status, or be recognised as victims of modern slavery.
Small boat
A vessel (typically a rigid-hulled inflatable, dinghy or kayak) used to cross the English Channel with the aim of entering the UK without permission. Arrivals are counted when detected on or after arrival.
Dispersal accommodation
Longer-term housing procured by Home Office contractors for supported asylum seekers, spread across local authorities.
Contingency accommodation
Accommodation used when dispersal capacity runs out — mostly hotels, plus other sites. Hotels are a subset of contingency, and this site counts them separately.
Initial accommodation
Short-term accommodation on first entry to the support system, pending dispersal.
Section 95 support
Support (accommodation and/or subsistence) for destitute asylum seekers while their claim is being considered.
Section 4 support
Support for failed asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute and meet certain conditions.
Section 98 support
Emergency support while a Section 95 application is decided.
Backlog (awaiting initial decision)
People whose asylum claim has not yet received an initial decision. Counted in people and in cases (a case can cover a family).
Grant rate
The share of initial decisions that grant protection or other leave, calculated on cases at initial decision. Appeals change final outcomes; rates move with policy (pauses, country guidance) as well as caseload.
Enforced return
A return carried out or escorted by the state, typically from detention. Distinct from voluntary returns (which include assisted and controlled departures) and from people refused entry at port who then leave.
FNO (foreign national offender)
A person without British citizenship convicted of an offence. In prison statistics, nationality is as recorded by MoJ and is not immigration status — FNOs include lawful residents.
FNOs living in the community
FNOs subject to deportation action who are not detained — released on bail or at end of sentence while their removal is pursued or frustrated.
Immigration detention
Holding under immigration powers in removal centres, short-term facilities or prisons, normally pending removal or examination.
NRM (National Referral Mechanism)
The framework for identifying potential victims of modern slavery. An NRM referral is a safeguarding step, not a determination.
Prevent / Channel
Prevent is the counter-radicalisation safeguarding programme; a referral is a concern raised, not an offence. Channel is the multi-agency support stage for those assessed as at risk.
Inadmissibility
Rules allowing the Home Office to decline to consider an asylum claim from someone with a connection to a safe third country.
YE vs FY vs calendar year
Home Office statistics mostly use years ending March/June/September/December ('YE March 2026'); cost figures use financial years (April–March, 'FY 2024-25'); some series are calendar years. Every figure on this site states which period it covers.
OGL
The Open Government Licence v3.0, under which UK public-sector statistics are republished here with Crown copyright acknowledged.
Return vs removal vs deportation
Three different things, counted differently, and routinely used as synonyms in public argument. A RETURN is anyone leaving the UK who had no right to remain, whether the state made them or not — it is the Home Office's headline measure and it includes voluntary departures. A REMOVAL is a return the state carries out. A DEPORTATION is narrower still: removal under a deportation order, which follows a criminal conviction or a decision that a person's presence is not conducive to the public good. Every deportation is a removal and every removal is a return; the reverse is not true. When a figure on this site says 'returns' it means the widest measure, and it says which of the three it is counting.
Voluntary return
A departure the person makes themselves rather than under escort, including assisted returns where the Home Office pays travel costs and 'controlled' departures where the state books the ticket. It counts towards the returns total. A voluntary return is not necessarily an unpressured one: it can follow detention, a refused claim or the loss of support.
Refused entry at port
A person refused permission to enter at the border and returned, usually within days. Published separately from enforced and voluntary returns because it is a different event at a different stage.
Deportation order
The legal instrument requiring a person to leave and barring return while it is in force. Made against foreign national offenders and in 'conducive to the public good' cases. Having an order in force is not the same as having been removed under it.
AASC (asylum accommodation contracts)
The Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts, under which asylum accommodation is procured, each covering a group of UK regions. The contracts are the reason a small number of private companies appear throughout the cost pages.
IRC (immigration removal centre)
A detention facility holding people under immigration powers. Each has a statutory Independent Monitoring Board and is inspected by HM Inspectorate of Prisons.
STHF (short-term holding facility)
A facility holding people under immigration powers for short periods — at ports, airports and reporting centres — rather than for the duration of removal action.
Rule 35 report
A report a doctor in detention must make where a detainee's health may be injuriously affected by detention, where they may have suicidal intentions, or where there are concerns they may have been a victim of torture. The published figure counts reports MADE, not concerns upheld.
First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber)
The tribunal that hears appeals against Home Office immigration and asylum decisions. It counts CASES; the Home Office counts PEOPLE — which is why this site never sets one body's caseload against the other's as a ratio.
Allowed rate (appeals)
The share of determined appeals decided in the appellant's favour. It is calculated on appeals determined in the period, which are not the same cases as the decisions taken in that period — an appeal outcome can arrive years after the decision it challenges.
ECF (Exceptional Case Funding)
Legal aid granted where a case falls outside the funded scope but refusing it would breach human rights obligations. Published as application and grant volumes, without spend.
Resettlement schemes
Routes on which people arrive with permission already granted — the UK Resettlement Scheme, the Afghan schemes (ACRS and ARAP), the Ukraine schemes and the British National (Overseas) route. Arrivals on these routes are lawful and are not asylum claims; the site shows them so the lawful routes are visible at the same scale as the irregular ones.
Safe third country / third-country removal
Arrangements for treating a claim as inadmissible, or removing a claimant, because of a connection to another country deemed safe. Whether such an arrangement exists, and whether anyone has actually been removed under it, are two different questions — and this site reports the second only from published figures.
Leave to remain
Permission to stay in the UK, granted for a limited period or indefinitely. Refugee status is one form; humanitarian protection, family and private life leave and discretionary leave are others. 'Granted asylum' in the statistics can mean any of the protection outcomes, which is why the site quotes the publisher's own outcome label.
No recourse to public funds
A condition on many forms of leave barring access to most benefits and social housing. It is one reason a person can be lawfully present, working, and still appear in homelessness figures.
Provisional vs official statistics
Operational data published quickly (the weekly small-boat series, the monthly returns counts) is provisional and gets revised. Official statistics are published quarterly on a fixed counting basis. The two disagree slightly for the same period, and this site publishes the divergence rather than choosing one silently.
Snapshot vs flow
A snapshot counts people in a state on one date (people in detention, people in hotels, people awaiting a decision). A flow counts events over a period (arrivals, returns, decisions). A snapshot cannot be added to a flow, and a rising snapshot with a rising flow can mean opposite things.
Residual category ('Other', 'Unknown')
A bucket a publisher uses for everything that does not fit its named categories. It is not a category: charting it alongside real ones invents a group that does not exist. The build fails if a residual row reaches a chart as though it were one.
Subtotal row
A row in a published table that already contains the rows beneath it. Summing a column that mixes subtotals with their components double-counts everything. Where this site publishes such a table, the nesting is emitted as data and the arithmetic is asserted.
Named-day question
A written parliamentary question for which the member specifies the date they expect an answer. Ordinary written questions carry the date the House works to instead. The two behave very differently, so this site never blends them into one 'answered on time' figure.
OSR (Office for Statistics Regulation)
The independent regulator of UK official statistics, which assesses whether producers meet the Code of Practice for Statistics. Its correspondence with the Home Office is republished on the sources page: it is commentary on how figures are produced and released, not a statistic.
Code of Practice for Statistics
The standard official statistics must meet — trustworthiness, quality and value. Breaches include releasing a figure outside the published schedule, which the regulator has found in relation to an internal asylum hotel figure.
IMB (Independent Monitoring Board)
A statutory board of volunteers monitoring conditions in every immigration removal centre and short-term holding facility, reporting annually. Unusually, the Home Office publishes a written response to each report, so concern and answer are both on the record.
HMIP (HM Inspectorate of Prisons)
The independent inspectorate that inspects immigration detention alongside prisons, publishing an overall judgement and detailed findings. This site publishes the judgement alongside any concern it quotes.