Clause 15
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
12:45 pm
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, Justice; Harborough, Conservative)
We have had an interesting discussion about the impact of foreign national prisoners on the English and Welsh prison estate. It is important that the Government make their position clear. Obviously, we must consider the situation involving some foreign nationals. For example, a person could be deported back to China after serving a relatively short length of time in custody for a relatively minor offence. Such people could get into considerable difficulty on their return to China because the Chinese are not noted for accepting back, let alone treating kindly, criminals of their own nation.
That being said, I think that I am right that since the Government came to office, the foreign national prison population has gone up by 155 per cent.—three times that of the British prisoner population—which gives rise to all sorts of questions about language facilities and the need for interpreters in prisons and courts. The bill for interpreters in London courts now runs into millions a year. I have no idea what that bill is in the Prison Service, but it must be quite significant.
I do not know the Government’s thinking about this at the moment, but they were proposing to give EU nationals £1,500 to go away. Of course, those EU nationals would take the money, go back to France, Italy or Greece, and return under the free-right-to-travel arrangements.
This is a convenient moment to unburden the Committee by letting them know that I do not wish to press my amendments to a Division. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.