Found: come here illegally back to a different country, we see the arrivals drop, as they have done from Albania

Found: We have signed a prisoner transfer agreement with Albania, for example.

Found: It recently published on Albania, and it is a really interesting study and concept because it sheds

Found: have been upheld in the courts The judgement of the Court of Appeal in the most recent case of R (LA (Albania

Found: They had arrived by small boats and were targeted for return to Albania.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase prison capacity.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government is currently delivering 10,000 new prison places by the end of 2025 and have a long-term commitment to build 20,00 places overall, which is the largest prison building programme in Britain since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through our two brand new modern and secure prisons. A third prison will open next year, and two more have planning permission; as a result, the total number of prison places is significantly higher than in 2010 and will rise further.

Meanwhile, with a new prisoner transfer agreement with Albania and expansion of the Early Removal Scheme, strong and decisive action is being taken to drive down the number of Foreign National Offenders in our prisons.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of, and what action they are taking to reduce, overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

In prisons where we have crowding in place, a rigorous cell certification process is undertaken that ensures the use of cells is subject to formal assessment of safety and decency.

We continue to pursue the package of longer-term measures the Lord Chancellor announced on 16 October 2023 to reform the justice system and continue to address the prison capacity challenges. The measures include: the extension of the Early Removal Scheme, introducing a presumption to suspend sentences of 12 months or less, curtailing the licence period for IPP sentences and extending the use of Home Detention Curfew. On 11 March, the Lord Chancellor announced the next steps in our plan, to allow us to go further and faster in removing foreign national offenders (FNOs). This includes expediting prisoner transfers with our priority partners such as Albania, and the creation of a new taskforce across the Home Office and Ministry of Justice to change the way we process FNO cases radically.

To meet pressing demand, we are building c.20,000 modern, rehabilitative prison places – the biggest prison build programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through our two new 1,700 places prisons, HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way, and c.590 Rapid Deployment Cells across 11 sites. By the end of 2025, we are on track to have delivered around 10,000 places in total.

The Government will continue to monitor the evolving situation with demand for prison places carefully, so that we can make sure we have the right approaches in place to maintain the capacity required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.

Found: or territorial entities (a “*” indicates there are exceptions in VN 2.2 to VN 6.5): Afghanistan Albania

Found: or territorial entities (a “*” indicates there are exceptions in VN 2.2 to VN 6.5): Afghanistan Albania

Found: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic , Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greec

Found: billion) 2022 (US$ billion) NATO Total 1052.4 1035.1 1055.1 1042.6 1070.4 1152.8 1174.2 1218 1195.1 Albania

Found: launched a new campaign that will be rolled out in Vietnam, following successful social media activity in Albania

Found: delivering this statement on behalf of the Nordic-Baltic countries and the following aligning states: Albania

Found: on behalf of: United Kingdom Norway United States of America Germany Liechtenstein Belgium Austria Albania

Found: Countries annotated with ‘*’ attended the exhibition: Albania Algeria* Argentina Australia

Found: Council Forces designated by the Order in Council Forces designated by the Order in Council Albania

Found: or territorial entities (a “*” indicates there are exceptions in VN 2.2 to VN 6.5): Afghanistan Albania

Found: 4,159,000 Apr 4,159,000 0 NA 0 4,159,000 Order number: 05.4324 - FTA Country of origin: Albania

Found: Geographical distribution Reported in Albania, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain