Voluntary return of a non-UK national to a country outside the UK
Case reference FOI2026/02250
Received 15 October 2026
Published 12 November 2026
Request
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting the following information for the 2025/26 financial year (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026).
If the authority does not hold figures for 2025/26, please provide them for its most recent 12-month recording period and state the dates covered.
In this request, "reconnection or voluntary return" means the supported, voluntary return of a non-UK national to a country outside the UK, where the person actually travelled. It includes:
* returns recorded under other terms, such as "supported return" or "assisted return".
* returns through the Home Office Voluntary Returns Service following a referral by the authority or services acting on its behalf.
It excludes:
* reconnection to another area within the UK.
* enforced removals carried out by the Home Office.
1. How many individual people did the authority, or services acting on its behalf, see or verify as sleeping rough over the course of 2025/26? Please break this total down by nationality, using the following categories:
a) UK
b) EEA
c) Non-EEA
d) Unknown
For this request:
* "EEA" means nationals of EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
* "Non-EEA" means nationals of all other countries outside the UK and the EEA (rest of world).
* Each person should be counted in one category only.
Please count each person once if they were seen or verified as sleeping rough on at least one occasion during the year.
If the authority does not record nationality in these categories, please give the figures in whatever categories it does use, and explain what each one covers. I would rather receive the data in the authority's own categories than have this part of the request refused or answered as not held.
2. During 2025/26, how many services that the authority ran, commissioned or funded for people sleeping rough offered support to non-UK nationals to reconnect or return voluntarily?
For this request, the following should be included:
* any service where reconnection or voluntary return is offered, even if that is not its main purpose.
* services delivered in-house, commissioned from an external provider, funded through a grant, or commissioned jointly with other authorities.
3. How many individual non-UK nationals who had been sleeping rough in the authority's area returned to a country outside the UK during 2025/26 through reconnection or voluntary return? Please count only returns supported through services that the authority ran, commissioned or funded.
Please break this figure down using the categories in question 1:
a) EEA
b) Non-EEA
c) Unknown
Please count:
* returns where the person actually travelled, not referrals or offers.
* each person once, even if they returned more than once during the year.
If the authority records referrals or offers but does not record whether a return took place, please say so and provide the number of referrals or offers.
If the authority records nationality in different categories, please give the figures in those categories instead, as set out in question 1.
Please give exact figures throughout. Only if the authority considers that a particular figure would identify someone, please give that figure as "fewer than 5" rather than withholding it or the rest of the response.
Response
Thank you for your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act.
Please find the response to your queries below:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting the following information for the 2025/26 financial year (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026).
If the authority does not hold figures for 2025/26, please provide them for its most recent 12-month recording period and state the dates covered.
In this request, "reconnection or voluntary return" means the supported, voluntary return of a non-UK national to a country outside the UK, where the person actually travelled. It includes:
* returns recorded under other terms, such as "supported return" or "assisted return".
* returns through the Home Office Voluntary Returns Service following a referral by the authority or services acting on its behalf.
It excludes:
* reconnection to another area within the UK.
* enforced removals carried out by the Home Office.
1. How many individual people did the authority, or services acting on its behalf, see or verify as sleeping rough over the course of 2025/26? Please break this total down by nationality, using the following categories:
a) UK
62
b) EEA
5
c) Non-EEA
7
d) Unknown
2
For this request:
* "EEA" means nationals of EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
* "Non-EEA" means nationals of all other countries outside the UK and the EEA (rest of world).
* Each person should be counted in one category only.
Please count each person once if they were seen or verified as sleeping rough on at least one occasion during the year.
If the authority does not record nationality in these categories, please give the figures in whatever categories it does use, and explain what each one covers. I would rather receive the data in the authority's own categories than have this part of the request refused or answered as not held.
2. During 2025/26, how many services that the authority ran, commissioned or funded for people sleeping rough offered support to non-UK nationals to reconnect or return voluntarily?
One.
For this request, the following should be included:
* any service where reconnection or voluntary return is offered, even if that is not its main purpose.
* services delivered in-house, commissioned from an external provider, funded through a grant, or commissioned jointly with other authorities.
3. How many individual non-UK nationals who had been sleeping rough in the authority's area returned to a country outside the UK during 2025/26 through reconnection or voluntary return? Please count only returns supported through services that the authority ran, commissioned or funded.
Please break this figure down using the categories in question 1:
a) EEA
Zero
b) Non-EEA
Zero
c) Unknown
Zero
Please count:
* returns where the person actually travelled, not referrals or offers.
* each person once, even if they returned more than once during the year.
If the authority records referrals or offers but does not record whether a return took place, please say so and provide the number of referrals or offers.
If the authority records nationality in different categories, please give the figures in those categories instead, as set out in question 1.
Please give exact figures throughout. Only if the authority considers that a particular figure would identify someone, please give that figure as "fewer than 5" rather than withholding it or the rest of the response.
Yours sincerely
FOI Team
Guildford Borough Council
Documents
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