Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government on what grounds they have challenged the Information Commissioner’s instruction for them to publish data on foreign national offending between 2018 and 2024.

Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice are in the process of appealing the Information Commissioner Officer’s decision to the First-tier Tribunal, it would be prejudicial to live proceedings to release any of the requested information.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve labour productivity in the public sector.

Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government is taking a range of steps to improve labour productivity in the public sector - that is, to increase public services output per hour worked. I will touch on a few of them.

Central to this is investment in artificial intelligence and technology to reduce administrative burden and free up staff time for frontline delivery.
More broadly, the government is investing in productivity-enhancing reform across public services, including up to £10 billion for NHS technology and digital transformation, £2.1 billion to modernise HM Revenue and Customs' information technology and data infrastructure, and £1.9 billion for cross-cutting digital transformation across government.

The government is also committed to improving Civil Service productivity. This includes reducing bureaucracy by adopting digital technology and AI tools, streamlining approval processes, and establishing a higher-skilled civil service with stronger accountability for performance.

Through automation of routine administrative tasks, we are freeing up civil servants to focus on high-value casework and delivering better services to the public. For example, the incubator for AI (i.AI) tool "Consult", has publicly supported 38 consultations across 10 departments, saving tens of thousands of administrative hours and millions of pounds.

The Cabinet Secretary is also leading a wide-ranging review of the permanent Civil Service to set out a vision for its future as an efficient, world class institution serving the elected government of the day. The review will report before summer 2027. Its final report will include proposals to strengthen accountability and capability across the Civil Service, with a focus on delivery, innovation and productivity, and public trust.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made in deporting foreign national offenders to (1) Albania, (2) Romania, (3) Poland, (4) Lithuania and (5) Jamaica, since July 2024.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.

Since this Government came to power over 11,700 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been returned, an increase of 41%, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.

The number of FNOs returned by nationality (of which ‘deportation’ is a legal subset) is published by the Home Office in the Immigration Systems Statistics quarterly release.

Please see table below of the top 10 FNO returns by nationality:

Found: Q18 Lord Jackson of Peterborough: Liberals do tend to be on the left, in this country.

Found: Lord Barrow; Lord Brennan of Canton; Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell; Lord Grantchester; Lord Jackson of Peterborough