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Prisoners: Repatriation

Question for Ministry of Justice

UIN 7024, tabled on 14 December 2023

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 on

19 December 2023

This answer is a correction from the original answer.

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

Original answer

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

23

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

Cyprus

Israel

Romania

Czech Republic

Italy

Saudi

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