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Deportation and Removal of Foreign Nationals

I have today written to the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee to inform them that, to the best of my knowledge, between February 1999 and March 2006, 1,023 foreign national criminals, who should have been considered for deportation or removal, completed their prison sentences and were released without any consideration of deportation or removal action. This is deeply regrettable and I wish to outline in this statement how we intend to improve our performance. Since June 1996 the foreign national prisoner population has risen from 4,259 to the figure of 10,265 at the end of February 2006. This includes those detainees held in the three Prison Service run removal centres of Dover, Haslar and Lindholme. But the arrangements for identifying them and considering removal from the UK have not kept pace with that growth. Our policy has always been to consider serious offenders for deportation before release—or if that is not possible to make a decision about immigration detention, electronic monitoring or restriction orders before release. Beyond some changes to appeal rights, the process for dealing with deportation of foreign national prisoners has not changed fundamentally in recent years. However, it is clear that the increasing numbers of cases being referred for consideration led to the process falling down. Over the course of the last year we have been making significant improvements to the system for identifying, referring and caseworking foreign national prisoners to ensure that we have a robust system to handle this group effectively. We are increasing resources in this area which will provide, amongst other things, a significant increase in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate's (IND) caseworking capacity. This increase will allow us to commence deportation proceedings twelve months before the prisoner is due for release, which is the earliest point at which case law currently allows for consideration to commence and will ensure that suitable prisoners are removed from the country at the appropriate point of their sentence. IND is working with other relevant Government Departments to continue to strengthen the handling of these prisoners. This includes consideration of the sentencing options and improvements in identifying and processing of these prisoners to ensure that as many are removed from the United Kingdom as soon as possible. I will also bring together the key players from the departments involved at least twice a year at ministerial level and quarterly at senior official level to create and take ownership of an effective strategy for dealing with these issues. It is clear that there has been a failure on our part to deal with all the cases we should have. That failure has been identified in part due to the strengthening of the system for identifying foreign national prisoners and there is now a package of initiatives underway to strengthen this area of business. My aim is to ensure that the foreign national population is managed effectively and proactively, ensuring that the number of people held in prisons under immigration powers is kept to the absolute minimum and that we have the sentencing powers and identification referral and caseworking systems in place to consider and action deportation procedures for every foreign national prisoner who has committed a serious crime, and that we are in a position to effect removal at the earliest point of release.