To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national prisoners (a) by nationality and (b) of no known country of origin were held in prisons in England and Wales on 31 December 2014.

Foreign national offenders who have no right to remain in the UK should be removed at the earliest opportunity and the Government has toughened the system, including by pursuing compulsory transfer agreements with European countries.

In addition, 23,000 foreign offenders have been removed from the UK since 2010 and more than 600 under the 'deport first, appeal later' provisions, with many more being processed through the system. The grounds on which criminals can appeal against deportation have been cut.

Data on the number of foreign national prisoners in prisons in England and Wales is published in the Ministry of Justice’s quarterly population tables, which can be accessed via the following web link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2014

Table 1.8 of the document entitled Prison population: 31 December 2013 to 31 December 2014 gives a breakdown of the England and Wales population as of 31 December 2014 by country of nationality, and includes the number for whom nationality was not recorded.