Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress he has made on the restoration of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Pakistan.

A Prisoner Transfer Agreement is in place to enable Pakistani nationals to voluntarily transfer from the UK during their prison sentence so that they continue to serve their sentence in Pakistan (and vice versa for British nationals imprisoned in Pakistan). Prisoner transfers are, however, currently suspended due to the corrupt release of prisoners transferred to Pakistan in 2010. The Government of Pakistan has since taken action to return the corruptly released prisoners to custody and has prosecuted those involved.

Work is underway with the new Government of Pakistan to resolve the issues presented by the corrupt releases and restart transfers with appropriate safeguards in place. In the meantime, Pakistani nationals continue to be deported from the UK following completion of their prison sentences.