Foreign prisoners will be deported earlier under new government proposals to ease up Britain’s booming jail population.
Prisons minister Damian Hinds put forward the draft legislation to MPs on Tuesday, which will allow foreign national offenders (FNOs) to be removed from the country six months earlier.
Mr. Hinds said the change to the current early release scheme for FNOs—which allows criminals to leave prison early in exchange for repatriation—will not only help free up cells for the most dangerous offenders, but increase public safety.
A foreign criminal who is deported under the scheme and attempts to regain entry to the UK, will be immediately returned to prison to finish the entirety of their sentence, he told Parliament.
“Between 2019 and 2023, we removed 14,700 foreign national offenders from the country but there are still 10,000 foreign national offenders or FNOs in our prisons, each of them taking up a prison place at great expense to the British taxpayer,” he told the Commons.
“And while my department is working closely with the Home Office to increase removals, there is still more that can be done.”
Half-Baked
The minister added: “We estimate this will add around 300 foreign national offenders to the early removal scheme eligible caseload at any one time.“Now, in addition to the early removal scheme, as I mentioned, we also have prisoner transfer agreements, including our new agreement with Albania, which came into force in May of last year, and we’re looking to negotiate further such agreements.”
He added that by removing more FNOs earlier in their sentence, “we will be saving the taxpayer money banishing criminals from our shores and ensuring we have sufficient prison places to keep the worst offenders locked up for longer.”
Despite backing the proposal, Labour described the Tory draft measures as “half-baked and cooked up in a panic.”
Labour MP Ruth Cadbury said: “As the opposition, we will be supporting this order, the change to the timing of release for foreign national offenders, because the government has got themselves into a mess.
“And it’s, once again, the job of the opposition to help the government get out of this mess.”
Ms. Cadbury said the current overcrowding crisis in prisons needed to be addressed and tackled.
She said: “I want to make clear today that this is a half-baked measure, cooked up in a panic in the department, a change that’s not been consulted on nor planned.
“A change that comes as part of a quick rush to address the overcrowding crisis in our prison estate, a crisis that has been long coming.”
Murderers and Rapists
While welcoming the plans, former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel raised concerns over the impact the early release of foreign offenders would have on victims—even if they are no longer in the country.The Tory MP said: “There are many victims who will expect an offender to be in custody for as long as possible to serve a punishment for their crimes and will have concerns about an offender being released enjoying freedoms in the country of their nationality.
“And victims in particular of rape and sexual offences, and other serious offences, have, rightly so, significant concerns about seeing the perpetrators of these horrific crimes, effectively receiving a degree of their liberty back.”
Hitting back at Labour’s criticism of the government’s approach to the prison crisis, Dame Priti said: “In fact, 70 members of the benches opposite wrote to me [as home secretary] to stop a deportation flight to Jamaica […] murderers, rapists, drug dealers, you name it, were on that flight.
“And I think it’s quite shameful actually to hear a level of deniability from the party opposite today. I don’t think that’s at all acceptable.”
In his announcement, Mr. Chalk said legislation would be brought forward to allow prisoners to be held overseas, a move that the government said follows steps taken by Belgium and Norway.
It comes amid serious concerns about overcrowding in British prisons, with over 88,000 people currently incarcerated in England and Wales.
