Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes are deported.

We are absolutely committed to protecting the public by removing foreign criminals and are determined to do all we can to ensure that they cannot frustrate the removal process.

Last year, under the Nationality and Borders Act (NABA) 2022, we expanded the early removal scheme (ERS) for FNOs to allow them to be removed directly from prison from a maximum of 9 months to 12 months before the end of their custodial sentence.

Our new Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania came into force in May 2022, and we are working closely with other countries to speed up the removal of foreign national offenders, freeing up space in our prisons and reducing costs to the British taxpayer.