Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Monday, 7 January 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 9 January 2008. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Monday, 14 January 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Offenders: Foreigners

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many non-UK prisoners of each sex who were returned to serve their sentences in their home countries were serving custodial sentences of (a) 12 months or more, (b) two years or more and (c) four years or more in the last year for which figures are available; and what these figures are as a proportion of (i) foreign prisoners and (ii) foreign prisoners returned to their home countries.

Answer: The final figure for the number of foreign national prisoners who were deported or removed from the UK in 2007 has not yet been finalised. However, in December it was reported that 4,000 foreign national prisoners have been removed or deported from the UK. In addition 111 foreign national prisoners were repatriated to their home countries in 2007 to continue serving their sentences there. Of these, 81 male and 25 female prisoners were serving sentences of four years or more and four male and one female prisoners were serving sentences of two years or more but less than four years. No prisoners serving sentences of less than two years were repatriated in 2007.As at 30 September 2007, the number of foreign national prisoners held in England and Wales was 11,211.

Secondary information