Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what agreements the Government has with the Government of Somalia relating to the transfer of prisoners; and what effect those agreements have had on the number of prisoners exchanged with that country.

The United Kingdom has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Republic of Somaliland which provides for the transfer of prisoners between the two jurisdictions. Only Somali nationals from Somaliland may be transferred to prisons there under this arrangement. To date no transfers have taken place.

We are committed to increasing the number of Foreign National Offenders removed from our prisons, whether they removed through Prisoner Transfer Agreements or the Early Removal Scheme. In 2015/16 we removed the highest number of Foreign National Offenders since records began with a total of 5,810 offenders removed from prisons, immigration removal centres and the community.