Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to remove foreign national offenders from (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Kidsgrove.

One of this Government’s key objectives is to protect the public by removing foreign national offenders who commit criminal offences and have no right to remain in the UK. Foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them irrespective of where they live, including Stoke-on-Trent and Kidsgrove, and since January 2019, we have removed 6,450 foreign national offenders from the UK.

All foreign nationals who receive a custodial sentence are referred to the Home Office to consider removal action. Every week we remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries who have no right to be here. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to return and deport foreign offenders and other immigration offenders where flight routes have been available to us, both on scheduled flights and charter flights.

For non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals, deportation will be pursued where it is conducive to the public good including where a person receives a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, commits an offence that caused serious harm or is a persistent offender. Currently, European Economic Area (EEA) nationals are deported in accordance with European Union (EU) law on the grounds of public policy or public security.

The UK’s departure from the EU means that, in future, an EEA national who commits an offence after the end of the transition period (31 December 2020) will be considered under the same deportation thresholds that apply to non-EEA nationals.

We only return those with no legal right to remain in the UK, including foreign national offenders. Individuals are only returned to their country of origin when the Home Office and, where applicable, the Courts deem it is safe to do so.

This Government’s priority is keeping the people of this country safe, and we make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals.