Offenders: Deportation

(asked on 6th January 2016) - View Source
Questioner
Andy Slaughter Portrait
Andy Slaughter
(Labour - Hammersmith)

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.

Answered by
Andrew Selous Portrait
Andrew Selous
Second Church Estates Commissioner
This question was answered on 11th January 2016

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.



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