Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ian Davidson and Damian Green

Monday 9th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Damian Green]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, which we are working on. Where sentence length allows, consideration of deportation is now started up to 18 months before the earliest point of removal. As a result, we are removing a significant number of prisoners much earlier in the process. About a third of foreign national offenders removed in 2011 were removed before the end of their sentence, which is up from just under 20% in 2008.

[Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Do the figures for removal in these circumstances differ between the different nations and regions of the United Kingdom, and if so, why?

[Damian Green]

There are not significant differences because these people are, by definition, foreign national offenders, so they do not come from any of the regions of the United Kingdom. Broadly speaking, how efficient we are relates to whether we have a concentration of foreign national prisoners in a prison where UK Border Agency officers can get at them early enough to make sure that all the schemes operate as efficiently as possible.