Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 24 October 2023 to Question 202822 on Offenders: Deportations, if he will publish the number of asylum interviews for foreign national offenders conducted by his Department in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
There are currently no plans to publish the number of asylum interviews for foreign national offenders (FNOs).
The Home Office publishes information on FNOs in Immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders were imprisoned (a) in total and (b) by offence type in each year since 2008.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The total number of foreign national offenders who are imprisoned is published in Table A1.11 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1173712/Population_30June2023_Annual.ods.
Data for the second element can be found in the attached file.
The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) is a Government priority with all FNOs sentenced to custody being referred to the Home Office for consideration of deportation. Both departments are working closely to maximise removals from prison including:
The Govt has made good progress from removing from prison and the community and published figures show that overall FNO returns have increased in the latest 12-month period (ending September 2023) by 19% when compared to previous 12-month period (3,577 compared to 3,011). We removed 16,676 foreign national offenders since January 2019 to September 2023.
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:
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many convicted foreign-born criminals were deported in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum-related returns by return type (including enforced returns of which ‘deportations’ are a legally defined subset) are published in table Ret_05 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on returns. Data on returns of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) are published in table Ret_D03 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’ and are broken down by nationality not by country of birth. Data on FNO returns aren’t broken down by return type however the vast majority will be enforced returns, of which ‘deportations’ are a legally defined subset.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data for returns relates to end March 2023.
Asylum-related returns relate to cases where there has been an asylum claim at some stage prior to the return. This will include asylum seekers whose asylum claims have been withdrawn, refused, and who have exhausted any rights of appeal, those returned under third country provisions, as well as those granted asylum/protection, but removed for other reasons (such as criminality).
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the number of foreign national offenders who have returned to the UK since being deported for the first time since 2010.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Information on the number of foreign national offenders who have returned to the UK since being deported for the first time since is not available from published statistics.
Information on the number of foreign national offenders who have returned from the UK is available by nationality on a quarterly basis from Table Ret_D03 in Returns and detention datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of Foreign National Offender Asylum Interview Records were conducted within her Department's target in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information requested is not available from published statistics. There is no individual Key Performance Indicator relating to conducting asylum interviews for foreign national offenders.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much the resettlement grant under the Facilitated Return Scheme was in each year since 2015.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Information requested about the Facilitated Return Scheme since 2015 is not available from published statistics.
Information on the number of foreign national offenders that were returned from the UK under the Facilitated Return Scheme is available from Table FNO_09 in Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications to the Facilitated Return Scheme were made in each year since 2015.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Information on the number of applications to the Facilitated Return Scheme that were made in each year since 2015 is not available in a reportable format.
Information on the number of foreign national offenders that were returned from the UK under the Facilitated Return Scheme is available from Table FNO_09 in Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the prisoner capacity is at HMP (a) Huntercombe, (b) Maidstone and (c) Morton Hall as of 16 October 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The population, operational capacity and certified normal accommodation (CNA) level of every prison is published monthly: Prison population figures: 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
HMP Huntercombe, HMP Maidstone and HMP Morton Hall are the three foreign national offenders (FNO) only prisons within HMPPS. They hold only those of interest to the Home Office with between 3 and 36 months left to serve. They include embedded Home Office staff with better access to FNOs to facilitate effective deportations.
The table below provides the operational capacity and certified normal accommodation level at (a) HMP Huntercombe, (b) HMP Maidstone and (c) HMP Morton Hall on 16 October 2023.
| CNA | Operational Capacity |
Huntercombe | 369 | 480 |
Maidstone | 565 | 613 |
Morton Hall | 353 | 353 |
The Operational Capacity of a prison is the total number of prisoners that an establishment can hold taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime. It is determined by the Prison Group Directors on the basis of operational judgement and experience.
We are committed to increasing the number of FNOs removed from our prisons, and all FNOs sentenced to custody are referred to us at the earliest opportunity to be considered for deportation.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the certified normal capacity is at (a) HMP Huntercombe, (b) HMP Maidstone and (c) HMP Morton Hall.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The population, operational capacity and certified normal accommodation (CNA) level of every prison is published monthly: Prison population figures: 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
HMP Huntercombe, HMP Maidstone and HMP Morton Hall are the three foreign national offenders (FNO) only prisons within HMPPS. They hold only those of interest to the Home Office with between 3 and 36 months left to serve. They include embedded Home Office staff with better access to FNOs to facilitate effective deportations.
The table below provides the operational capacity and certified normal accommodation level at (a) HMP Huntercombe, (b) HMP Maidstone and (c) HMP Morton Hall on 16 October 2023.
| CNA | Operational Capacity |
Huntercombe | 369 | 480 |
Maidstone | 565 | 613 |
Morton Hall | 353 | 353 |
The Operational Capacity of a prison is the total number of prisoners that an establishment can hold taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime. It is determined by the Prison Group Directors on the basis of operational judgement and experience.
We are committed to increasing the number of FNOs removed from our prisons, and all FNOs sentenced to custody are referred to us at the earliest opportunity to be considered for deportation.