Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of offenders from Albania have been transferred to prisons in Albania from the UK in each year of the last five years.

The United Kingdom and Albania signed a prisoner transfer agreement in 2013. Since it entered into force 17 prisoners have been transferred to prisons in Albania from England and Wales. 2 prisoners were transferred in 2014, 5 in 2015, and 10 in 2016. Information on the prison population can be found on 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.