Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what meetings (a) she and (b) her Ministers have had with the (i) Albanian, (ii) Polish, (iii) Romanian, (iv) Irish and (v) Jamaican Government to discuss increasing the number of foreign national offenders returned from UK prisons in the last six months.

Increasing the numbers of foreign national offender returns from our prisons is a priority for this Government. We are working with international partners to achieve this.

In the last six months, Ministers from the Ministry of Justice have met with Polish and Romanian counterparts to discuss cooperation on prisoner transfers in the context of our bilateral criminal justice cooperation.

Since 05 July, there have been 1,557 Early Removal Scheme returns for foreign national offenders, which is a 26% increase compared to 1,231 in the same period 12 months prior.