Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what agreements the Government has with the Government of India 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 and India signed a voluntary prisoner transfer agreement in 2005. 7 prisoner have volunteered to transfer to India in the last 5 years. Of these 1 transferred in 2013, 4 in 2015, and 2 in 2016. A small number of other prisoners have had their transfers approved and await transfer to a prison in India. Information on the prison population can be found at www.gov.uk.

We are committed to increasing the number of Foreign National Offenders removed from our prisons, whether they are 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.

The transfer of prisoners from Scotland and from Northern Ireland is a devolved matter and is the responsibility of the relevant devolved authority.