Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of violent crime to their country of origin if it is unsafe.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
This Government puts the rights of the British public before those of criminals, and we are clear that foreign criminals should be deported from the UK wherever it is legal and practical to do so.
Under the UK Borders Act 2007, a deportation order must be made where a foreign national has been convicted of an offence and received a custodial sentence of 12 months or more. This is subject to several exceptions, including where to do so would be a breach of a person’s ECHR rights or the UK’s obligations under the Refugee Convention. Individuals are only returned to their country of origin when the Home Office and, where applicable, the Courts deem it is safe to do so. Each individual assessment is made against the background of any relevant caselaw and the latest available country information.
Apr. 03 2008
Source Page: Letter dated 02/04/2008 from Lord Hunt of Kings Heath to Lord Avebury regarding foreign national prisoners currently detained in prison. 2 p.Found: not be removed under the provisions of the EarlyRemoval Scheme as they had an appeal against their deportation
Mar. 21 2024
Source Page: Foreign national offenders on licence, PSS and IS91 policy frameworkFound: • PSI 29 /2014 / PI 26/2014 – Release on Licence for Foreign National Prisoners Pending Deportation
Mar. 21 2024
Source Page: Foreign national offenders on licence, PSS and IS91 policy frameworkFound: • PSI 29 /2014 / PI 26/2014 – Release on Licence for Foreign National Prisoners Pending Deportation
Mentions:
1: Alex Chalk (Con - Cheltenham) any country where no progress on foreign national offender removals can be made.Amend our existing deportation - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Baroness D'Souza (XB - Life peer) relations with the Taliban, and whether he has made representations to the Government of Pakistan about the deportation - Speech Link
2: Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con - Life peer) Specifically on the question of Pakistan’s deportation of Afghan refugees, we do not support these actions - Speech Link
3: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab - Life peer) About 100 CF 333 and ATF 444 applicants were rejected and are in Pakistan, fearing imminent deportation - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Lord Stewart of Dirleton (Con - Life peer) My Lords, any foreign national convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation - Speech Link
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national offenders were (a) subject to deportation action and (b) living in the community by the length of time since the end of their custodial sentence as of 1 March 2024.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Home Office does publish statistics on foreign national offenders (FNOs) subject to deportation action and living in the community by the length of time since the end of their custodial sentence. This is available from Table FNO_08 in: Immigration Enforcement data: Q4 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest data is published to September 2022.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the safety of people in Pakistan previously rejected by the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy who are having applications reconsidered.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK Government has had constructive and ongoing conversations with the Government of Pakistan to take steps to prevent the deportation Afghans eligible for UK resettlement schemes from Pakistan.
I have instructed MOD officials to raise awareness of this issue with the Pakistani authorities so that protection from deportation can be extended to those individuals within scope of the forthcoming reassessment of decisions taken on ineligible applications from former members of Afghan specialist units.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to publish statistics on the (a) nationality and (b) visa status of offenders convicted in England and Wales every 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice currently publishes the self-declared nationality of those entering custody as well as those in the prison population as part of their quarterly Offender Management Statistics: Offender management statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
We refer all recorded foreign national offenders awarded a custodial sentence to the Home Office who can carry out immigration checks alongside consideration of each case for deportation. An offender’s nationality and immigration status is not routinely collected by the courts. We are working with the Home Office to explore the potential for the publication of further statistical data related to the nationality and immigration status of offenders.
The removal of foreign national offenders is a Government priority and my department continues to work closely with the Home Office to maximise the number of deportations.
On 11 March, the Government set out a plan to increase the number of foreign national offenders removed through:
the recruitment of 400 additional caseworkers and streamlining the end-to-end removal process;
extending foreign national conditional cautions to foreign national offenders with limited leave to remain; and
amending deportation policy to enable foreign national offenders given suspended sentences of 6 months or more to be considered for deportation.
These actions build on our expansion of the Early Removal Scheme to allow for removal of foreign national offenders up to 18 months before the end of the custodial element of their sentence and expediting prisoner transfers with priority countries such as Albania and seeking to conclude new transfer agreements with partner countries.
Published figures show that FNO returns have increased following the pandemic, in the latest 12-month period (ending December 2023) by 27% when compared to the previous 12-month period. Between January 2019 and December 2023 17,795 FNOs have been removed.