Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Bone Excerpts
Tuesday 11th February 2014

(10 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Dominic Grieve Portrait The Attorney-General
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It is important that the hon. Gentleman understands that any decision to go down that road pre-charge is for the police to make, not for the CPS. The CPS can be consulted and after charge, when it is reviewing cases, it may identify cases that it can recommend should go down that route and have the charges dropped. I cannot tell him what happened to the other seven; I shall try to find out and write to him. It is desirable that the project be taken forward. It is not without difficulty: there are human rights issues, and often people say they are asylum seekers or have claimed asylum and therefore cannot be removed. That said, the fact that even that small number of people have been removed seems to me to be a step in the right direction.

Peter Bone Portrait Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)
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What happens when those foreigners have been repatriated? Are they allowed automatically to come back to this country at a later date, or are they banned from returning?

Dominic Grieve Portrait The Attorney-General
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Generally speaking, they are banned from returning to the United Kingdom, at least for a period of time. It depends on the nature of the offence: in some cases, the offence will be an immigration offence and may lead to a ban for a period of time; a serious criminal offence is likely to lead to a ban for ever.