Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals were returned to their home country up to (a) six and (b) 12 months before their prison release dates under the early removal scheme in the last five years.
Foreign criminals who break our laws should be properly punished but not at the expense of the British taxpayer. We are committed to ensuring that all means possible are explored to make sure that criminals who have no right to stay in this country are removed at the earliest opportunity.
Under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS), which has been in operation since 2005, foreign national offenders serving a determinate sentence may be removed from prison and deported up to a maximum of 270 days (9 months) before their normal release date. They must serve a minimum of a quarter of their sentence before they can be removed under the scheme.
Last year we returned more than 5,000 prisoners to their home country with around 1,800 being removed under ERS. Data on the number of foreign nationals removed under ERS (a) up to six months and (b) between six and nine months before their prison release date (as nine months is the statutory maximum period of early removal) for the last five years is provided in the table below:
Table 1: Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) removed under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) | |||
of which:- | |||
Year | Total number of FNOs removed under ERS | Removed up to 6 months before prison release date | Removed between 6 and 9 months before prison release date |
FY 2010-11 | 1,788 | 1,132 | 656 |
FY 2011-12 | 1,725 | 1,049 | 676 |
FY 2012-13 | 1,930 | 1,200 | 730 |
FY 2013-14 | 1,832 | 1,070 | 762 |
FY 2014-15 | 1,791 | 1,064 | 727 |
(1) The figures quoted have been derived from management information from the Home Office databases and are therefore provisional and subject to change. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols. | |||
(2) A Foreign National Offender (FNO) is defined as an individual with a criminal case on the Home Office's Case Information Database, and may include individuals with asylum cases. | |||
(3) ERS removals figures relate to the total number of FNOs removed under ERS, i.e. they include criteria and non criteria FNOs. | |||
(4) Prison release date refers to the 'Earliest Release Date' (ERD) on the Home Office's Case Information Database. Figures relating to those FNOs removed early are based on the calculation between ERD and Removal Outcome Date. | |||