Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he has taken as a result of the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services report on police effectiveness in March 2018 which concluded that background checks were being missed on foreign national offenders; and if he will make a statement.

The importance of submitting checks for overseas convictions is widely recognised and has been the focus of attention within the Home Office and with policing partners for some time. UK Policing has issued guidance to support forces in the management of Foreign National Offenders to increase the number of overseas conviction checks submitted. This guidance was supported by extensive outreach campaigns to educate officers.

Individual force performance is one of the issues reviewed regularly at senior levels within the Home Office Foreign Criminality Programme. This programme has driven a range of activity to improve engagement between Police and Immigration colleagues and drive up the incidence of police conducting criminality checks routinely in relation to the foreign nationals they encounter.