1 Progress in managing and removing
foreign national offenders since 2006
1. On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and
Auditor General, we took evidence from the Home Office, the National
Offender Management Service and the Metropolitan Police Service
on the management and removal of foreign national offenders. We
also received written evidence from the Independent Chief Inspector
of Borders and Immigration.[1]
2. The government aims to remove as many foreign
national offenders as quickly as possible to their home countries,
to protect the public, to reduce costs and to free up spaces in
prison. The Home Office has overall responsibility for the removal
of foreign national offenders, and pursues the government's aims
with the Ministry of Justice, the National Offender Management
Service, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the police.[2]
At the end of March 2014, there were 12,250 foreign national offenders,
of whom 8,003 were in the prison estate in England and Wales (including
1,400 held after completing their sentence while the Home Office
continued to try to deport them), and 4,247 who had completed
their sentence but had been released into the community pending
removal action. [3]
3. In 2006, this Committee concluded that there were
systemic failings in the Home Office's management of foreign national
offenders, including core problems of weak strategy and controls,
silo working, lack of data and ineffective case management. The
Home Office treated the detention, release and deportation of
convicted foreign national criminals as separate, uncoordinated
operations, and there were poor communications between the bodies
involved. The
Home Office was unable to provide adequate information about the
number or location of foreign national offenders and the Committee
concluded that it did not have a grip on the issue.[4]
4. In response, the Home Office committed to improve
substantially its management of foreign national offenders, including
increasing the number removed from the UK and ensuring that no
foreign national offenders were released from custody without
first being considered for deportation. It promised to improve
the quality of data and management information, and to toughen
powers.[5] The number of
staff working in this area increased from less than 100 in 2006
to over 900 in 2014.[6]
5. Despite the commitments made by the Home Office
and the increased resources deployed, the number of foreign nationals
in prison has actually increased from 10,231 at 31 March 2006
to 10,649 at 31 March 2014. The number of foreign national offenders
removed from the UK peaked at 5,613 in 2008-09 and has not matched
that level since, falling as low as 4,539 in 2011-12, before reaching
5,097 in 2013-14. The Home Office accepted that progress had not
been fast enough over the last eight years and that it should
be in a better position, given the resources it has invested in
this area.[7] While it
maintained that the lack of progress could be attributed in part
to a 28% increase in the number of appeals made by foreign national
offenders against deportation since 2010-11, the Home Office agreed
that the system as a whole still needs significant improvement,
and that it shares our frustrations over its continuing problems.[8]
6. The Home Office accepted that its management information
and data for foreign national offenders were incomplete despite
the fact that improving these had been a priority for several
years.[9] The Home Office
was unable to provide answers to basic questions, such as the
re-offending rates of the 4,247 foreign national offenders living
in the community.[10]
While it could estimate that 151 foreign national offenders had
been released without consideration for deportation since 2009,
it could not tell us the number between 2006 and 2009 as the data
were incomplete.
7. The Home Office admitted that it did not know
the cost of managing foreign national offenders and accepted that
its cost data were not robust enough to enable it to make a judgment
as to which of its interventions or processes were more cost-effective
than others, and whether the management of foreign national offenders
as a whole was value for money. In the absence of existing information,
the National Audit Office estimated that the cost of managing
and removing foreign national offenders during 2013-14 was £850
million, some £100 million more than managing an equivalent
number of British national prisoners.[11]
- While accepting that there were weaknesses with
its data, the Home Office maintained that the quality of its data
and management information had improved over the last 18 months,
and that further improvement was a priority.[12]
However, we concluded in our recent report Reforming the UK
Border and Immigration System that the quality of data was
still poor across wider border and immigration business areas.[13]
1 C&AG's Report, Managing and removing foreign
national offenders, Session 2014-15, HC 441, 22 October 2014 Back
2
C&AG's report, para 1 Back
3
Qq 31- 35; C&AG's Report, paras 3.3 and 3.23 Back
4
Home Office Resource Accounts 2004-05 and follow-up on Returning
failed asylum applicants, Committee
of Public Accounts, Sixtieth Report of Session 2005-06, HC 1079,
July 2006; and Returning failed asylum applicants, Committee
of Public Accounts, Thirty-Fourth Report of Session 2005-06, HC
620, February 2006 Back
5
Treasury Minutes on the Sixtieth Report from the Committee of
Public Accounts 2005-2006: Home Office Resource Accounts 2004-2005
and follow up on returning failed asylum applicants, HM Treasury,
Cm 6959, November 2006; and Treasury Minutes on the Thirty-fourth
and Thirty-sixth to Thirty-ninth Reports from the Committee of
Public Accounts 2005-2006: Returning failed asylum seekers, HM
Treasury, Cm 6863, June 2006 Back
6
Qq 175-177 Back
7
Qq 2-5, 172 Back
8
Qq 2-4, 318 Back
9
Qq 59-62 Back
10
Qq 196-201 Back
11
Qq 101-105; C&AG's report para 4.12 Back
12
Qq 59-62, 66 Back
13
Reforming the UK border and immigration systems, Committee
of Public Accounts, Twentieth Report of Session 2014-15, HC 584 Back
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