Foreign criminals to be deported as soon as they are convicted
Foreign offenders jailed for crimes in the UK will be deported as soon as they are convicted in a bid to tackle prison overcrowding.
Burglars, drug dealers and offenders convicted of assault who have been sentenced to under three years in prison will be removed from the UK as 'soon as operationally possible' rather than serve their time in Britain as is currently the case.
The proposals will be revealed this week by the Government's independent review on sentencing.
The review has recommended scrapping the current law which says ministers can only deport foreign criminals after they have served half of the custodial part of their sentence. This means a burglar jailed for three years can, at present, only be deported after serving just over seven months in jail – a fifth of their sentence.
David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary, who is heading the review, has also recommended giving ministers powers for earlier deportations of foreign criminals jailed for more than three years. There are 10,800 foreign prisoners – one in eight of all inmates – which costs taxpayers £580 million a year.
Under the changes, the Government would be able to remove them after they had served just 30 per cent of the custodial part of their sentence rather than 50 per cent. This would mean a major drug dealer jailed for 12 years could be deported within two years, or just 12 per cent of the way through their overall sentence.
Under the early removal scheme, deported foreign criminals do not have to serve any more prison time after they are returned to their home countries. But, if they sneak back into the UK and are caught, they will be immediately jailed and forced to finish their uncompleted sentence in a British prison.
It is understood that Mr Gauke's recommendations on Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) will be accepted by Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary. She believes it will have widespread support based on polls which showed it was the top choice of the public for tackling the jail overcrowding crisis.
The move will also blunt one of the main demands by the Tories who have called for the deportation of all foreign prisoners rather than any more early release schemes or 'soft justice' plans.
Mr Gauke said: 'There is no place in our society for criminals who come to this country and break our laws, but it is clear the current system for deporting foreign criminals is not working – and the taxpayer is footing the bill.
'Those sentenced to custody for less than three years should expect to be immediately deported, and further changes should be made to the early removal scheme to enable the Home Office to remove FNOs as quickly as possible. This will free up valuable space in prison, save the taxpayer money and ultimately protect the public.'
A YouGov poll of 2,300 adults found 82 per cent backed releasing foreign offenders early so they could be deported as a way to boost prison capacity. This was ahead of the 80 per cent who backed building more jails and 62 per cent who supported allowing low-risk offenders to be held under house arrest instead of prison.
Murderers, terrorists and rapists would not be automatically eligible for deportation but would be subject to the parole board deciding whether they were safe to be removed.
The Ministry of Justice has negotiated separate prisoner transfer arrangements with countries such as Albania, where dangerous criminals can be deported to serve the remainder of their sentences in jails in their home countries.
Running out of prison cells
The review will urge the Home Office to look into laws to ensure it has powers to deport foreign criminals as quickly as possible.
It is already changing the law to make it easier to deport any foreign sex offenders and to introduce curbs on judges' powers to allow overseas criminals to remain in the UK on human rights grounds.
Any foreign national jailed for more than a year faces automatic deportation. Those imprisoned for under a year can also be removed if they have caused serious harm, are persistent offenders, or represent a threat to national security.
The sentencing review aims to enable the Government to avoid running out of prison cells, with forecasts that it will be 9,500 spaces short by Spring 202, even with its £4.7 billion prison building programme.
Other measures to be recommended include earlier releases for prisoners who behave well, a presumption against sending criminals to jail for under one year and greater use of community punishments with a major expansion of electronic tagging to create digital 'prisons outside of prisons'.
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