The Home Office has made the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2026, signed by Minister of State Alex Norris on 25 February 2026. The instrument brings the remainder of Section 44 of the 2025 Act into force on Thursday 5 March 2026. Source text is published on legislation.gov.uk as S.I. 2026/163.
Section 44 clarifies that the Secretary of State may detain an individual while considering whether to make a deportation order and, if the decision is to proceed, pending the making of that order. Subsections 1 to 13 and 17 took effect automatically on Royal Assent under Section 65(3) of the Act on 2 December 2025, confirming detention from the point the person is notified that deportation is being considered or decided. The Home Office summarised this policy effect in its Equality Impact Assessment for the Act.
Commencement No. 3 activates the remaining subsections-Section 44(14) to (16)-which amend Section 51 of the Immigration Act 2016. From 5 March, detainee custody officers (and equivalent officers in prisons and escorting) will be able to require a detained person to hand over nationality documents, and to search for, seize and retain such documents where relevant. This aligns search and document‑handling powers with the clarified detention stage in deportation cases, as trailed in Home Office materials accompanying the Act.
For caseworkers, the legal trigger remains documentary. Detention may lawfully begin once written notice has been served that deportation is being considered or, if none was given at that stage, that a deportation order will be made. Files should therefore evidence the service of the relevant notice alongside detention authorisation and any subsequent document‑seizure activity, to meet public law standards and prepare for potential bail scrutiny.
For detention operators and contractors, the operational change sits in procedures rather than headline capacity. Search policies inside immigration removal centres should be updated to reflect the amended Section 51 powers, including training on what constitutes a “nationality document”, obtaining and recording authorisations, chain of custody, retention periods, and routes to return where the Secretary of State does not retain the material. Operators should ensure Equality Act and safeguarding guidance is embedded in search practice and that records are audit‑ready.
Defence representatives will want to check that detention decisions are grounded in the new statutory wording and that any search or seizure of documents is tied to nationality relevance. The parliamentary record during passage described Section 44 as clarifying and aligning existing powers rather than expanding detention categories, which is likely to feature in litigation about proportionality and necessity in individual cases.
The statutory timetable is now clear. Royal Assent was on 2 December 2025; further provisions commenced automatically on 2 February 2026 under Section 65(4); and Commencement No. 3 takes effect on 5 March 2026. The Department indicates no separate impact assessment for the instrument, pointing instead to the Act‑level assessments published on GOV.UK, which anticipate limited additional burdens on operational partners.
In practical terms, this is a targeted commencement that completes the Section 44 package: detention authority from the notification stage, with matching powers to obtain and hold nationality evidence. Public bodies should confirm documentation templates, notices and search forms are consistent with the amended legal basis ahead of 5 March, and ensure decision logs capture the statutory tests used at each step.