Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025

Overview of the Act

Reproduced verbatim from the Explanatory Notes published with the Act on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). Explanatory Notes are prepared by the responsible government department and are not part of the Act.

The Act establishes the architecture and provides the tools, powers and offences to transform the cross-system response to the threats against UK border security and strengthens the operation of the border security, asylum and immigration systems.

The purpose of the Act is to improve UK border security and strengthen the asylum and immigration system by creating a framework of new and enhanced powers and offences that, when taken together, reinforce, enhance and connect capabilities across the relevant government and law enforcement partners which make up the UK’s border security, asylum and immigration systems.

While the measures within the Act enable a response to the range of current and future threats to the UK border, the intention in the immediate term is to support the Border Security Command’s focus on preventing, investigating and prosecuting Organised Immigration Crime (OIC), providing additional deterrents and penalties for criminals involved in such activity. The Act will: enable smarter, faster and more effective interventions to protect UK border security; make it easier to detect, disrupt and deter those seeking to engage in and benefit from OIC, limiting the permissible environment and its impact; and improve understanding of how and why OIC happens.