To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about his intentions for the movement of Northern Irish prisoners, currently held in prisons in Great Britain, to prisons in Northern Ireland. [33024]

The Criminal Justice Act 1961 provides for prisoners to request either permanent or temporary transfer from one United Kingdom jurisdiction to another. Requests for transfer continue to be considered on their individual merits under criteria announced to the House on 23 November 1992.