House of Commons - Public Accounts

Select Committee on Public Accounts Sixtieth Report

2 Release of foreign nationals on completion of custodial sentences

6. Concerns regarding the number of foreign prisoners released from criminal custody without consideration for deportation were raised by the C&AG in July 2005.[22] At our hearing in October 2005, we asked the Home Office for information on the number of criminals who were failed asylum applicants and had been released from prison; how many there were; where they were; what crimes they had committed; what sentences they had been given and how long they had served.[23] The Department undertook to provide a supplementary note. In November 2005, the Home Office told us that this information was not available because the Prison Service did not record the number of failed asylum applicants or those seeking asylum in its establishments, and so could not determine why they had been committed to prison, or where they were now. The Department revealed that it knew of 403 foreign national criminals (not all of whom were failed asylum applicants) released from prison without deportation proceedings being completed between 2001 to August 2005, but that the true figure would be higher because not all foreign national criminals had been identified as such.[24] In March 2006, a Member of this Committee, Mr Richard Bacon, wrote to the Department asking again for data on criminals who were failed asylum applicants, first requested at our October hearing. On the eve of our hearing in April 2006, the then Home Secretary wrote to this Committee, apologising for not answering Mr Bacon's specific questions on failed asylum applicants and providing corrected evidence for the number of foreign national criminals released from prison without deportation proceedings being completed.[25]

7. The position reported to this Committee on 26 April 2006 on the release of foreign national prisoners from custody without consideration for deportation was much more serious than that initially presented to us by the Department in November 2005. We were told that between 2001 and August 2005, 609 foreign criminals had been released from prison into the community without consideration for deportation, not 403 as previously stated, and that 1,023 had been released between February 1999 (when records began) and March 2006, of which 237 were said to be failed asylum applicants (Figure 2). Of these 1,023 criminals, 79 were said to have been imprisoned for more serious offences, including 13 for murder, manslaughter, rape or child sex offences. But the Department has struggled to provide firm figures, changing its categorisation of offences and revising the figures on at least four further occasions. On 3 May, the number convicted of more serious offence rose to 90. This number was revised by the Home Secretary again on 15 May to 179. On 23 May, the total number released from custody without consideration for deportation was revised to 1,019, and the number convicted of more serious crimes to 186. On 29 June, the Director General of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate released revised figures, reducing the total released from custody without consideration for deportation to 1,013 and increasing the number convicted of the more and most serious offences to 189.[26]

Figure 2: Analysis of immigration history of the 1,013¹ foreign nationals released from custody between February 1999 and March 2006 without consideration of deportation action

Category Number

No asylum aspect 650

Failed asylum applicant 237

Asylum outstanding 54

European Economic Area[27] nationals 10

Refugee 7

British 1

Not known 64

Note:
¹The table includes an additional ten duplicate records, subsequently deleted by the Department, bringing the total to 1,023 cases.

Source: Home Office

8. The high incidence of error, inconsistency and omission in the evidence provided by the Home Office on this issue is indicative of systemic failure on the part of the Home Office, due in part to the Department's practice of treating the detention, release and deportation of convicted foreign national criminals as largely separate, uncoordinated operations. The Department attributed the failure to consider deportation to poor communication between the Prison Service and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate and the absence of a shared goal to consider deportation before release from custody, but there were other contributory factors.[28]

9. Among these factors is that, for some years now, the Home Office has acknowledged that the procedures in place between the Prison Service and Immigration and Nationality Directorate for identifying and considering the removal of foreign nationals in custody had not kept pace with the rapid growth in the numbers of foreign offenders in prison, which more than doubled between June 1996 (4,259) and February 2006 (10,265). Of the 1,013 foreign national prisoners released into the community without consideration for deportation between February 1999 and March 2006, the date of release was recorded centrally for some 900, of which the majority were released after January 2004, with some 120 released between 1999 and December 2003 (Figure 3).[29]

Figure 3: Analysis by month of the release of the 1,013¹ foreign nationals from custody without consideration for deportation²

Notes:
1. Figure includes an additional ten duplicate records, subsequently deleted by the Department, bringing the total to 1,023 cases.

2. Figure excludes 121 offenders released prior to January 2004 and 123 for whom no details were available.

Source: Home Office

10. Procedures introduced in 2004 by the Prison Service and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to speed up consideration for deportation were not implemented consistently. During 2004-05, 1,607 convicted foreign nationals were deported but at least 251 others were released into the community without consideration for deportation. In April 2005, three months prior to the publication of the C&AG's agreed Report, the Department issued revised guidance on its existing processes. These steps were not enough to reverse or contain the increase in the number of foreign national prisoners released from custody without consideration for deportation.[30]

11. Of the foreign nationals released from prison without consideration for deportation since 1999, 48 of the more and most serious offenders have been reconvicted of offences, at least 16 of them more serious,[31] since release and other offenders have committed 184 other offences.[32] These offences could have been avoided had the Home Office discharged its responsibilities properly for managing the foreign national prisoner population, both in custody and on release. In May 2006, the Home Office designated eight priority areas for management action as its longer term 'agenda for change' to deal more effectively with foreign prisoners and to help achieve the Department's long-term objective that all non-European Economic Area nationals who are given a custodial sentence should face deportation. These priority areas include the issue of consistent guidance to be fully implemented by all agencies of the criminal justice, asylum and immigration systems. To deliver these longer-term objectives, the Department needs to address, as a matter of urgency, issues relating to performance, weak services, leadership and skills, fragmentation and silos, poor communication and systems and processes.[33] The Home Office has recently outlined its intention to consult on a radical overhaul of the process for removing foreign nationals convicted of crimes in the UK, including plans to legislate to obtain new powers to deport convicted criminals at the start of their sentences. These proposals are at an early stage of development and will take some months to implement.[34]

12. Data that would have helped the Department to review the impact of its policies and procedures for managing the detention and release of foreign national offenders from custody was held on individual case files and was not available centrally. Whilst the Department has provided this Committee and the House with conviction and re-conviction data for offenders released without consideration for deportation, these data have been subject to weekly revision. The Home Office could not provide information on the numbers of foreign nationals discharged from prison, the prisons from which the foreign nationals were released, the length of sentence and the time they served. This information was contained in individual case files but had not been entered electronically in a central system.[35]

13. Recommendations to improve the removal of failed asylum applicants in the Committee's Report Returning failed asylum applicants[36] apply equally to the Home Office's management of convicted foreign nationals. As with asylum applicants, there has been no end-to-end management of the process, resulting in backlogs in deciding the outcome of cases, and delays in deporting those recommended for removal. Of particular concern has been the Department's lacklustre performance against its target for the timely removal of 85% of foreign national prisoners within 28 days of the end of the individual's criminal sentence (Figure 4). In the five months to April 2006, the Department's performance has declined against this target, compared to the six months prior to July 2004, when 71% of offenders were removed within 28 days of release.[37]

Figure 4: Performance in the period December 2005 to April 2006 against the target to remove 85% of foreign national prisoners within 28 days of the end of the individual's criminal sentence

Month Removals
(%)
Shortfall on target
(%)

December 2005 67.4 -17.6

January 2006 70.5 -14.5

February 50.9 -34.1

March 62.8 -22.2

April 65.4 -19.6