Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-British nationals who have served their sentence remain held in prison under immigration powers awaiting deportation.

This Government puts the rights of the British public before those of criminals, and we are clear that foreign criminals should be deported from the UK wherever it is legal and practical to do so.

The Home Office publishes data on people in detention as at the last day of the quarter in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. The number of people in detention held in an HM Prison under immigration powers, published on the 25 February 2021, is available from table Det_D02 of the Detention detailed datasets. Information on those who have served their sentence and remain held in prison under immigration powers awaiting deportation is not available in a reportable format.

We make every effort to ensure that a person’s removal by deportation coincides, as far as possible, with their release from prison on completion of sentence. Where an FNO refuses to cooperate with the removal or deportation process, they may be detained. Foreign national offenders held in detention have the option to apply to an independent immigration judge for bail at any point.

Since January 2019, we have returned 7,240 FNOs, and we make no apology for protecting the public.