Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that foreign national offenders are deported from prison when they eligible for removal.

The Home Office faces significant and complex challenges when seeking to return those who have no right to be in the UK to their country of origin or lawful place of return. Despite these barriers, we are fully committed to making our communities safer by returning those who break our laws.

Since this Government came to power almost 10,000 foreign national offenders (FNOs) have been returned, an increase of 36%, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.

FNOs are referred to the Home Office for deportation immediately following sentencing, and we make every effort to ensure that FNOs are removed directly from prison. We have delivered record numbers of FNO returns under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS), delivering 3,044 returns in the year ending January 2026, which is a 13% increase compared to the 2,700 in the same period 12 months prior.

HMPPS (HM Prisons and Probation Service) continue to work closely with the Home Office to ensure the Scheme process runs as efficiently as possible.