Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Ministry of Justice

Oral Answers to Questions

Henry Smith Excerpts
Tuesday 20th February 2024

(9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Mike Freer Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mike Freer)
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The £55 claim issue fee is modest, and this is completely different from the previous fee scheme, so I simply do not accept the hon. Gentleman’s characterisation. I am quite happy to defend that small, reasonable fee as necessary to help defray the costs of our system.

Henry Smith Portrait Henry  Smith  (Crawley)  (Con)
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T6.   What percentage of the backlog in Crown court cases is due to foreign national offenders, and what has been done to reduce that?

Alex Chalk Portrait Alex Chalk
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Data on foreign national offenders is collected at the point when an individual becomes an offender—in other words, at the point of conviction—but in addition, the Ministry of Justice records the numbers in custody awaiting trial who are FNOs, and that stands at approximately 3,300. On driving the figures down, the Home Office is working to increase take-up of conditional cautions, which lead to FNOs being expelled from the UK, in place of prosecution, in appropriate cases.