Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The key point is that the purpose of the amendments is to support the Government's belief that, when possible, foreign national prisoners should serve their sentences in their home countries. I also believe that prisoners who are to be deported at the end of their sentence should, if possible, be transferred while still serving it. The issue is important because, as the hon. and learned Member for Harborough (Mr. Garnier) said, some 11,211 foreign national prisoners were in jails in England and Wales as of 30 September. That is perhaps balanced in some way by the 2,500 British nationals who were held in prisons abroad as of 30 September. Hon. Members made several points, to which I shall try to respond. First, the hon. and learned Member for Harborough asked what ““close ties”” meant. The phrase, ““close ties”” mirrors existing provision in the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984 and means, for example, the right of residence in the United Kingdom, or having close family here—some of the foreign national prisoners who might be subject to deportation or transfer might have lived here for many years and be parents of children born here. A number of issues are clearly defined in the Repatriation of Prisoners Act. In relation to the hon. Member for Cambridge's point about the lack of a right of appeal in proposed new section 4C(6), that provision is inserted simply for consistency with other provisions in the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984. He is correct that that is still subject to potential judicial review, if appropriate, but again, the provisions mirror those of the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984. My hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North (Jeremy Corbyn) and the hon. Member for Cambridge mentioned international obligations. I give them the commitment that we will maintain our international obligations in relation to such issues. It is important that we uphold those standards, and those obligations will be met within the framework that I have outlined today. As my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, North mentioned, the amendments also allow the UK to ratify the additional protocol to the Council of Europe convention, so that transfer may take place only to countries that have signed the protocol. I hope that he will welcome that safeguard. I can only apologise, in a sense, for the extensive content of the new clauses, and for the time that the House has to debate them. They are significant issues, but as I mentioned in my opening remarks, I wished to bring them forward to ensure that the UK has sufficient legislation to ensure the transfer of responsibility for the continuing enforcement of a sentence when no physical transfer of the prisoner can take place.