Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national prisoners were removed from the UK in each year between 2000 and 2006.

The Home Office did not have an automated system to record the number of foreign national offenders (FNOs) before 2006. As a result we are unable to provide data for the number of FNOs who were removed between 2000 and 2006. Since 2010, this Government has removed 22,000 FNOs.

The Immigration Act 2014 will have a significant impact on the ability of FNOs to delay removal by mounting legal challenges whilst in the UK. We have reduced the number of appeal rights for foreign criminals from 17 to 4, and set out clearly in primary legislation the right balance on the right to a family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights to prevent individuals from playing the system. This means that appeals can only be brought where the Home Office has refused a protection (asylum or humanitarian protection) claim, a human rights claim or a claim based on EU free movement rights.