Foreign National Offenders (Removal) Debate

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Department: Home Office

Foreign National Offenders (Removal)

Julian Huppert Excerpts
Wednesday 22nd October 2014

(10 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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Of course I understand people’s frustration on the issue. It is this Government who have put in place a specific team, for the first time, to trail and find those absconders and it has been successful in two thirds of the cases it has dealt with. Obviously, we want that to improve but at least we have taken that step.

Julian Huppert Portrait Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)
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Paragraph 3.19 of the NAO report talks about the benefits of the EU prisoner transfer agreement. The Ministry of Justice estimates that there will be a further 4,500 removals and £110 million saved. Does the Home Secretary agree that such close working with the European Union is an essential part of what we have to do to deal with the problem and that people who would like to walk away from the European Union will make it much harder?

Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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The prisoner transfer agreements are an important element of dealing with the issue. As my hon. Friend will know, there are still some countries in which we need to finalise the agreements and their approach. The prisoner transfer agreement is an important step and a useful tool and that is why it was one of the measures on the list of those to which we wanted to opt back in.