To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many judicial recommendations for deportation of convicted criminals were (a) made and (b) carried out in each of the last two years. (166081)

The information requested could be obtained only by a detailed examination of individual case records at disproportionate cost.

On 20 November the chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency wrote to the Home Affairs Committee to provide the most recent information available on the deportation of foreign national prisoners. In this letter she advised that, for the calendar year 2007 and up to the first week of November, approximately 3,500 foreign national prisoners were deported or removed. A copy of this letter is available from the Library of the House.