Feb. 29 2024
Source Page: Immigration Enforcement data: Q4 2023Found: number of records in the post-2008 migration refusal pool at the end of each quarter foreign national offenders
Dec. 14 2023
Source Page: Tribunals statistics quarterly: July to September 2023Found: Index Additional data on Detained Immigration Appeals and Immigration Appeals from Foreign National Offenders
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time is to return foreign offenders to their country of origin under the Facilitated Return Scheme; and whether there is a target time for such cases.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Facilitated Return Scheme (FRS) offers all foreign national offenders (FNOs) with a determinate prison sentence the opportunity to volunteer to return to their country of origin.
The average waiting time to return foreign offenders to their country of origin under FRS is not obtainable from our current database. Whilst we aim to consider or decide all applications within 20 days, there is no specific target for removal.
This is a practical solution which saves the taxpayer considerable amount of money in the long run and means FNOs can be removed as soon as possible, denying them the opportunity to re-offend.
While we make every effort to ensure that a foreign national offender’s removal by deportation coincides, as far as possible, with their release from prison on completion of sentence, we can face significant and complex challenges when seeking to deport them to their country of origin, including obtaining valid travel documents.
Published information on FRS was published in December 2021 and is available from The Facilitated Return Scheme (FRS) (publishing.service.gov.uk).
Mentions:
1: Lord Bellamy (Con - Life peer) By doubling up cells where it is safe to do so, speeding up the deportation of foreign national offenders - Speech Link
2: Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab - Life peer) What guarantee can the Minister give that no sexual offenders or violent offenders will be walking our - Speech Link
Correspondence Oct. 25 2023
Committee: Justice Committee (Department: Ministry of Justice)Found: Probation, dated 20 October 2023, regarding the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Removal of Prisoners for Deportation
May. 09 2024
Source Page: Letter dated 07/05/2024 from Lord Bellamy to Lord Jackson of Peterborough and others regarding questions and comments raised during the debate on Prisons: Foreign National Offenders: Albanian organised crime, engagement with Jamaica on prisoner transfers, prisoner transfer agreement with the Philippines, strategy for prisoner transfer agreements with partner countries, religious conversion and asylum claims, changes to the Early Removal Scheme. 3p.Found: Peterborough and others regarding questions and comments raised during the debate on Prisons: Foreign National Offenders
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders were removed from the country through a prison transfer agreement each year since 2010; and if he will list which countries were they removed to.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity. Where appropriate, the Government will also seek to permanently remove foreign criminals from the UK via the Early Removal Scheme once they have served the minimum required of their sentence. This is our best performing removal scheme with 5,262 Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) having been removed between January 2019 and June 2022.
The Home Office removed 16,676 foreign national offenders since January 2019 to September 2023. Published figures show that FNO returns have increased in the latest 12-month period (ending September 2023) by 19% when compared to previous 12-month period.
Our new Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania entered into force in May 2023 and we have signed a new Prisoner Transfer Agreement with the Philippines. We are looking to negotiate new Prisoner Transfer Agreements with key EU Member States and wider-world countries
Foreign national offender removals via Prisoner Transfer Agreements since 2010:
Year: | Removals: |
2010 | 46 |
2011 | 33 |
2012 | 41 |
2013 | 44 |
2014 | 34 |
2015 | 57 |
2016 | 99 |
2017 | 107 |
2018 | 111 |
2019 | 136 |
2020 | 81 |
2021 | 73 |
2022 | 50 |
2023 | 33 |
Countries or Territories we have removed foreign national offenders to via Prisoner Transfer Agreements since 2010:
Albania | Denmark | Latvia | Slovakia |
Austria | Ecuador | Lithuania | Slovenia |
Belgium | Estonia | Macedonia | Spain |
Bermuda | France | Malta | Sri Lanka |
Bolivia | Germany | Montenegro | St Helena |
Brazil | Ghana | Netherlands | Sweden |
Bulgaria | Gibraltar | Nigeria | Switzerland |
Canada | Greece | Norway | Turkey |
Cayman | Hungary | Pakistan | Ukraine |
Chile | India | Poland | Vietnam |
Croatia | Ireland | Portugal | Iraq |
Cyprus | Israel | Romania |
|
Czech Republic | Italy | Saudi |
|
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 26 October 2023 to Question 203862 on Open Prisons: Prisoners' Transfers, what the criteria were for male prisoners to be deemed eligible for the Restricted Open Estate Transfer scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Restricted Open Estate Transfer (ROET) scheme was active from 25 September to 9 October. Eligibility for ROET was limited to prisoners serving a standard determinate sentence with an automatic release point at the halfway point of their sentence who were between 7 and 28 days away from their conditional release date. Fewer than 50 lower risk offenders were transferred as they progressed towards moving back into the community at the end of their sentence. Any prisoners showing concerning or violent behaviour were excluded.
Prisoners in the following categories were deemed ineligible for ROET:
Prisoners should be excluded if their current behaviour or any known risk factors would make a current recategorisation decision inappropriate. These factors are:
Mentions:
1: Andrew Jones (Con - Harrogate and Knaresborough) What progress he has made on improving employment opportunities for ex-offenders. - Speech Link
2: Andrew Jones (Con - Harrogate and Knaresborough) We know that ex-offenders are at high risk of homelessness, particularly immediately on release. - Speech Link
3: Jim Shannon (DUP - Strangford) Veterans very often fall on hard times, find themselves in prison and then become ex-offenders. - Speech Link
4: Alex Chalk (Con - Cheltenham) Between January 2019 and March 2023, 14,700 foreign national offenders were served with deportation orders - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Alex Chalk (CON - Cheltenham) By doubling up cells where it is safe to do so, speeding up the deportation of foreign national offenders - Speech Link
2: Shabana Mahmood (LAB - Birmingham, Ladywood) How can he reassure the public that this is not just a green light to offenders? - Speech Link
3: Vicky Ford (CON - Chelmsford) Can he assure us that those persistent offenders will still be judged? - Speech Link