Prisoner Transfer Agreements

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale Excerpts

Tuesday 15th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord McNally]

My Lords, officials of the Ministry of Justice have recently concluded a review of the Anglo-Thai agreement and submissions will be considered shortly by Ministers. The issues raised by the right reverend Prelate will be considered by Ministers when we receive that review.

[Lord Corbett of Castle Vale]

Will the review explain why some foreign national prisoners are able to serve their sentences in their country of origin and some are not?

[Lord McNally]

In some cases we have agreements with the countries of origin. Where we do not have agreements, obviously we cannot send those prisoners back. We have recently concluded an agreement within the EU that will come into force on 5 December this year which will extend that two-way process to 27 countries. There is also a protocol with the Council of Europe which extends to 34 countries, so we are building this up. We are seeking other bilateral arrangements which will allow such exchanges.