UK Borders Bill

I must make progress, but I will give way to the hon. Lady later. I start with the part of the Bill that most leaps out as making unjustified claims. It is the part dealing with the deportation of criminals, starting with clause 28, which is headed ““Automatic deportation””. I assume that this is an attempt to justify the Prime Minister’s promise on the subject, when he said in the House on 3 May 2006 that"““it is not just a question of the existing system; it is about making sure that that system is radically overhauled so that those who are convicted of a serious criminal offence are deported automatically.””—[Official Report, 3 May 2006; Vol. 446, c. 961.]" Having read the Bill, I believe that the honest title of this clause should be ““Automatic deportation, except when it isn’t””. This section is a result of the Home Office having one of its tabloid moments, hoping that if it talks tough, it will not matter that nothing much is actually going to change. Let us investigate the reality. The Lord Chancellor has already blown the gaff. He has admitted that the Prime Minister’s claims that there would be automatic deportation were false. He said on the ““Dimbleby”” programme last year:"““There are obviously offences where it’s imprisonable but sometimes a very, very minor offence is committed which wouldn’t remotely justify deportation in every circumstance””." There have been other newspaper reports that No. 10 was forced to admit that it would not be able to send prisoners back to countries where their lives would be at risk, and that must be right. Let us look at a practical example. The Minister has discussed the foreign prisoners in our prisons, who represent 14 per cent. of the total prison population. Problems with the 10,000 or so foreign prisoners who were in our prisons at the end of 2005 were the cause of the sacking of the previous Home Secretary, and I am sure that the present Home Secretary would be keen to ease the prison overcrowding crisis by getting them out of our jails. Perhaps the Minister can tell us how many of the 10,000 would be automatically deported under the Bill.