Deportation Flight to Jamaica Debate

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Department: Home Office

Deportation Flight to Jamaica

Steve Baker Excerpts
Monday 10th February 2020

(4 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lindsay Hoyle Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. I should tell the House that I am aiming to run the urgent question for around 45 minutes.

Steve Baker Portrait Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)
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Surely voters throughout the country for all parties would expect serious and persistent offenders to be deported in accordance with the law. Will my hon. Friend tell the House the minimum threshold at which somebody becomes classified as a serious and persistent offender, so that we can understand the criteria being applied to put people on these flights?

Kevin Foster Portrait Kevin Foster
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Normally, the definition of a serious offence would be one that has attracted a sentence of 12 months in prison. On persistence, the nature of the offences would be considered. There is not a particular number that somebody would have to hit; it would be about the nature of their offending patterns. As my hon. Friend says, the public would expect serious or persistent offenders who are liable to be deported under the 2007 Act to be removed from this country unless the exceptions apply.