Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to remove foreign national offenders from prisons to their home countries.

It is right that foreign criminals who break our laws are properly punished but this shouldn't be at the expense of the British taxpayer. This government has a longstanding policy to do everything possible to return foreign prisoners to their home country at the earliest opportunity. Since 2010, 29,000 foreign national offenders have been removed from the UK and the foreign national offender’s total population in our prisons is reducing, falling from 10,866 in December 2010 to 9,895 in December 2015.

As announced in the Prime Minister’s speech on 8 February, my officials have been working closely with the Home Office to introduce a legal requirement for defendants appearing in court to provide their name, date of birth and nationality. This will enable earlier identification of foreign national offenders and help with the removals process.