To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) subject to deportation proceedings and (b) deported on national security grounds in each year since 2001. (307732)

The UK Border Agency is committed to ensuring that we remove those foreign nationals who pose a risk of harm to our society. In 2007, we removed or deported 4,200 foreign national prisoners who met our criteria for deportation. We continued to build upon this success in 2008, when we removed or deported 5,395. In the first half to 2009, the agency removed 2,560¹ foreign criminals.

Figures are unavailable prior to 2007, and could be obtained through the examination of individual records only at a disproportionate cost.

Comprehensive details of the numbers of cases where a notice of intention to deport on grounds of national security are not available for the period 2001-04. However, nine people have been deported on grounds of national security since 2005, three in 2006, six in 2007 and zero in 2008.

¹ These figures are based on provisional MI information.