UK Borders Bill

The amendment requires the notice of intention to deport to be made within three months of the end of a person’s sentence. If he has exhausted his rights of appeal against conviction and sentence, there is no reason why the notice should not have been issued immediately before the end of the sentence so that persons remaining in custody beyond the end of a sentence, as so often happens at present—as the noble Lord, Lord Judd, has said—is avoided. However, in the cases, which I hope are rare, where the appeal against conviction or sentence is still to be heard when the sentence expires, it would be inappropriate for the deportation order to be made until the appeal has been heard. The noble Lord, Lord Judd, mentioned the reports of the Chief Inspector of Prisons. I remind the Minister of what she says in her most recent thematic report on foreign national prisoners of July 2006. She criticises, "““the failure to arrange speedy deportation or removal for the many foreign nationals who want and need to return home as soon as their sentences end””." I reinforce that with a quotation from Bail for Immigration Detainees, which says that it is, "““contacted by many people from prisons and Immigration Removal Centres who do not have legal representatives and are detained for months, or even years, following the end of their criminal sentence””." We therefore strongly support the spirit of the amendment. We would like to know why, considering the overcrowding crisis in prisons, the Government do not keep records of the number being detained beyond the end of their sentences, and for how long they are held.