Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Indian nationals have been returned to India in each year since the signing of the Agreement between the UK and India on the transfer of sentenced persons, published on 12 May 2006.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and the Ministry of Justice will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation. Since July 2024, 2,925 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been removed which is a 21% increase compared to the same period 12 months prior.
FNOs serving custodial sentences may be transferred to serve their prison sentence in their home country if it has a reciprocal Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) with the UK. The UK has over 110 PTAs with other countries. The previous government agreed some PTAs that are compulsory and others that are voluntary which require the prisoner’s consent to be transferred.
A revised compulsory PTA with Albania was ratified in 2021 and an arrangement to increase its efficiency was signed in March 2023. Under the previous government, between 2021 and March 2023, no transfers were made but since the agreement was updated, 8 Albanians have been transferred.
The previous government announced the expectation of getting a PTA in 2015 with Jamaica but the agreement was never finalised.
Since our electronic records began in 2011, 20 Indian nationals have been returned to India under the PTA. In the past 2 years fewer than 3 Indian nationals have been returned under the PTA. It is worth noting that the PTA with India is voluntary which means that consent is required from the prisoner for the PTA to be agreed.
As with India the PTA with Iraq is also voluntary and since the PTA was signed in 2015 fewer than 3 Iraqi nationals have been transferred.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Iraqi nationals have been returned to Iraq in each year since the signing of the Agreement between the UK and Iraq on the transfer of sentenced persons of October 2015.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and the Ministry of Justice will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation. Since July 2024, 2,925 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been removed which is a 21% increase compared to the same period 12 months prior.
FNOs serving custodial sentences may be transferred to serve their prison sentence in their home country if it has a reciprocal Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) with the UK. The UK has over 110 PTAs with other countries. The previous government agreed some PTAs that are compulsory and others that are voluntary which require the prisoner’s consent to be transferred.
A revised compulsory PTA with Albania was ratified in 2021 and an arrangement to increase its efficiency was signed in March 2023. Under the previous government, between 2021 and March 2023, no transfers were made but since the agreement was updated, 8 Albanians have been transferred.
The previous government announced the expectation of getting a PTA in 2015 with Jamaica but the agreement was never finalised.
Since our electronic records began in 2011, 20 Indian nationals have been returned to India under the PTA. In the past 2 years fewer than 3 Indian nationals have been returned under the PTA. It is worth noting that the PTA with India is voluntary which means that consent is required from the prisoner for the PTA to be agreed.
As with India the PTA with Iraq is also voluntary and since the PTA was signed in 2015 fewer than 3 Iraqi nationals have been transferred.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Jamaican nationals have been returned to Jamaica in each year since the signing of the Compulsory Transfer Agreement with Jamaica in September 2015.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and the Ministry of Justice will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation. Since July 2024, 2,925 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been removed which is a 21% increase compared to the same period 12 months prior.
FNOs serving custodial sentences may be transferred to serve their prison sentence in their home country if it has a reciprocal Prisoner Transfer Agreement (PTA) with the UK. The UK has over 110 PTAs with other countries. The previous government agreed some PTAs that are compulsory and others that are voluntary which require the prisoner’s consent to be transferred.
A revised compulsory PTA with Albania was ratified in 2021 and an arrangement to increase its efficiency was signed in March 2023. Under the previous government, between 2021 and March 2023, no transfers were made but since the agreement was updated, 8 Albanians have been transferred.
The previous government announced the expectation of getting a PTA in 2015 with Jamaica but the agreement was never finalised.
Since our electronic records began in 2011, 20 Indian nationals have been returned to India under the PTA. In the past 2 years fewer than 3 Indian nationals have been returned under the PTA. It is worth noting that the PTA with India is voluntary which means that consent is required from the prisoner for the PTA to be agreed.
As with India the PTA with Iraq is also voluntary and since the PTA was signed in 2015 fewer than 3 Iraqi nationals have been transferred.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners released under the early release scheme have been rearrested.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice does not hold any data on arrests or rearrests as that is held by Home Office.
Reoffending rates are published regularly on an annual and quarterly basis. The most recent rates are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics.
Prisoners released on SDS40 are subject to licence and liable to recall to prison if they do not comply or are judged a risk to public safety.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders were granted temporary release in 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The number of foreign national offenders Released on Temporary Licence (ROTL) in 2024 is not available; this data forms a subset of ROTL data scheduled for future publication in April 2025. In accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, we may not give any early indication of the contents of this statistical report.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information her Department holds on the number of assaults committed by biological males serving a custodial sentence in a women-only facility in 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
No such assaults have been reported.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of legal aid for irregular migrants in 2024.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Expenditure data for irregular migrants across all legal aid schemes is not held centrally.
Where proceedings are before a court or tribunal in England or Wales, legal aid is available to individuals who qualify for services irrespective of their immigration status.
The Legal Aid Agency publishes information about case volumes and expenditure data for the immigration and asylum category as part of its official statistics. Please see tables 5.2-5.3 for volume an expenditure data for Legal Help and Controlled Legal Representation – this covers advice and representation before the Immigration Tribunal. Tables 6.1-6.10 set out volume and expenditure date for Civil Representation – this covers representation before the county courts and higher courts including High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total amount of deportations to Pakistan is under the UK-Pakistan Prisoner Transfer Agreement.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) is an important priority of this Government and we refer all FNOs in receipt of custodial sentences to the Home Office to be considered for deportation.
Ten Pakistani nationals have been repatriated to Pakistan under the bi-lateral Prison Transfer Agreement between August 2010 and October 2024.
We repatriate longer sentenced prisoners via prisoner transfer agreements that the Government already has with over 110 foreign countries. The Government continues to negotiate new, mutually beneficial agreements with a range of others as part of efforts to return offenders to their home countries, to be rehabilitated and serve their sentences there.
Prisoner Transfers are only one of the ways we remove FNOs from the country. Between 5 July 2024 and 4 January 2025 2,580 FNOs were removed (this includes removals from custody and the community post release), this is an increase of 23% compared to the same period last year.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will publish the total cost to the public purse for the provision of diversity, equality and inclusion courses for staff in her Department in 2024.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Ministry of Justice Headquarters spent £2,101 in 2024 on a course which includes the awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in a leadership training series delivered via the Cabinet Office Learning Frameworks provision.
All Ministry of Justice staff have the opportunity to complete the free, central Civil Service Expectations online training, which replaced several EDI courses in 2023
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average daily cost is of electronic tagging.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The average cost for an individual subject to electronic monitoring (EM) is approximately c.£9 per day.
It is important to note the above figure does not include the average cost of a probation or police officer supervising an individual with EM. For information relating to the additional supervision costs of managing an individual with EM please refer to the following: Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament