Justice written question – answered at on 16 June 2014.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with which countries and on what dates the UK has (a) signed and (b) ratified prisoner transfer agreements (i) between May 1997 and May 2010 and (ii) since May 2010.
The information is as follows:
Table 1: Prisoner Transfer Arrangements (PTAs) signed between May 1997 and May 2010 | |||
Country | Date of signature | Date came into force | Voluntary or Compulsory Agreement (i.e. consent of prisoner required or not) |
Antigua and Barbuda | 23 June 2003 | 20 January 2004 | Voluntary |
Barbados | 3 April 2002 | 2 March 2003 | Voluntary |
Brazil | 20 August 1998 | 11 December 2001 | Voluntary |
Cuba | 13 June 2002 | 2 July 2003 | Voluntary |
Commonwealth of Dominica | 2 May 2006 | 1— | Voluntary |
Dominican Republic | 18 February 2003 | 1— | Voluntary |
Ghana | 17 July 2008 | 17 July 2008 | Voluntary |
Hong Kong SAR | 5 November 1997 | 19 March 1998 | Voluntary |
India | 18 February 2005 | 21 November 2005 | Voluntary |
Jamaica | 26 June 2007 | 1— | Voluntary |
Laos | 7 May 2009 | 25 September 2009 | Voluntary |
Lesotho (provisionally applied on signature) | 6 June 2007 | 1— | Voluntary |
Libya | 17 November 2008 | 29 April 2009 | Compulsory |
Morocco | 21 February 2002 | 1 July 2013 | Voluntary |
Nicaragua | 6 September 2005 | 1— | Voluntary |
Pakistan | 24 August 2007 | 19 August 2008 | Voluntary |
Peru | 7 March 2003 | 11 September 2003 | Voluntary |
Rwanda | 11 February 2010 | 23 November 2010 | Compulsory |
St. Lucia | 27 April 2006 | 17 June 2008 | Voluntary |
Sri Lanka | 6 February 2003 | 24 March 2004 | Voluntary |
Suriname | 29 June 2002 | 1— | Voluntary |
Uganda | 12 September 2008 | 1— | Voluntary |
Venezuela | 12 June 2012 | 15 April 2003 | Voluntary |
Vietnam | 12 September 2008 | 20 September 2009 | Voluntary |
1 Not in force. |
Table 2: Prisoner Transfer Arrangements (PTAs) signed May 2010 to date | |||
Country | Date of signature | Date came into force | Voluntary or Compulsory Agreement (i.e. consent of prisoner or not) |
Albania | 15 January 2013 | 11 June 2013 | Compulsory |
Nigeria | 9 January 2014 | 1— | Compulsory |
Saudi Arabia | 2 January 2012 | 2 July 2012 | Voluntary |
Somaliland (Memorandum of Understanding rather than a PTA) | 16 April 2014 | 16 April 2014 | Compulsory |
United Arab Emirates | 24 January 2013 | 2 February 2014 | Voluntary |
1 Not in force—Nigerian PTA will shortly be in force. We are awaiting final exchange of diplomatic notes. First transfers are expected by the end of this calendar year (2014). |
In addition to the bilateral prisoner transfer arrangements listed above the United Kingdom became a party to the following multi-party arrangements:
The Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons
Signed:
Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA of the
Adopted:
All foreign national offenders sentenced to custody are referred to the Home Office for them to consider deportation at the earliest possible opportunity.
The Prisoner Transfer process is just one mechanism for removing Foreign National Offenders. The number of FNOs deported under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) has increased under this Government. In 2013, we removed nearly 2,000 FNOs under ERS and under the Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS), which we introduced in May 2012, we have removed over 240 FNOs to date.
Whereas this Government have begun to reduce the foreign national population in prison since 2010, between 1997 and 2010, the number of foreign nationals in our prisons more than doubled.
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