Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign nationals released from prison in 2023 and deported have subsequently returned to the UK.

The information requested on the number of returning foreign national offenders is not available from published statistics.

A deportation order requires a foreign national offender to leave the UK and prohibits them from entering the UK while it remains in force. Anyone discovered at the border attempting to do so will be automatically denied entry or detained. Entering in breach of a deportation order is a criminal offence under section 24(1)(a) of the 1971 Act, so if an individual who was previously deported is found again in the UK, other than at the border, they will again be liable to be detained and returned to prison.

Section 40 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 increased the statutory maximum sentence for breach of a deportation order from 6 months to 5 years.