To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they are making towards deporting foreign offenders sentenced to deportation as soon as their prison sentences are completed. [HL1646]

The UK Border Agency makes every effort to ensure that a foreign national prisoner’s removal by deportation coincides, as far as possible, with his or her release from prison on completion of sentence. Where sentence length allows, consideration of an individual’s case will be commenced 18 months prior to the earliest point of release.

All foreign nationals subject to removal will be considered by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) under the early removals scheme (ERS), which allows for early removal up to a maximum of 270 days prior to the halfway point of the sentence, subject to the serving of a requisite period. Since 2007, the UKBA has removed in excess of 15,000 foreign national prisoners. Approximately 25 per cent of these removals occurred under the ERS.