To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) people and (b) foreign nationals are in prison for each offence category.
Answered on
15 January 2024
The requested information can be found in the attached spreadsheet.
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:
- Expanding the Early Removal Scheme to 18 months so we get them out of the country early so they are no longer a cost to taxpayers;
- Deploying more Home Office caseworkers to speed up and increase removals from this country, and look at measures to remove foreign nationals accused of less serious crimes more quickly;
- Continuing to sign strike new prisoner transfer deals like the one agreed with Albania.
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.