Early Removal of Fixed-Term Prisoners (Amendment of Eligibility Period) Order 2008

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 12 March be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I also wish to speak to the Early Removal of Short-Term and Long-Term Prisoners (Amendment of Requisite Period) Order 2008. My purpose today is to discuss amendments to the early removal scheme for determinate sentence prisoners who are liable to deportation or administrative removal from the United Kingdom. These orders set out the Government’s proposals to extend the early removal scheme to enable prisoners to be removed up to a maximum of 270 days early rather than the current 135. This is the first time these specific order-making powers have been used. The early removal scheme in respect of foreign national prisoners has been successfully in operation since 2004 and more than 3,000 prisoners have been removed to their country of origin under the scheme. The scheme applies only to those foreign national prisoners who are able to be removed to their country of origin. Such prisoners benefit from the scheme only if their removal from the UK can be given immediate effect. We have been working to ensure that arrangements are in place to enable us to remove prisoners to their country of origin. Prisoners serving a life or indeterminate sentence are not eligible to be considered for removal under the scheme. Determinate sentence prisoners serving a sentence of four years and over under the Criminal Justice Act 1991 for a sexual or violent offence are removed under the scheme only if the Parole Board considers that they would present an acceptable risk to the community. Details of prisoners removed under the scheme are placed on the Home Office’s warnings index. Should they seek to return to the UK during their sentence they can be detected by the border control officer on arrival at the UK border, and returned to prison custody until the point at which they would have been released had they not otherwise been removed. Based on the successful experience of the last three and a half years, and in particular our increasing experience of and success in securing travel documents from overseas countries and making other arrangements with them that enable us to remove prisoners, we believe the scheme can make an even greater contribution to removing criminals from our shores. As of December 2007, there were 11,310 foreign national prisoners in the prison system, representing 14 per cent of the total prison population. Foreign national prisoners represent a significant proportion of the prison population, although it is low in comparison to many other European countries. The early removal scheme has a positive impact on the prison population. Moreover, we have made it clear that our objective is that foreign national prisoners should face deportation when they meet the relevant criteria and that deportation should happen as early as possible in their sentence. These proposals are entirely consistent with overall government policy. The Criminal Justice Act 1991 and the Criminal Justice Act 2003 empower the Secretary of State to remove foreign national prisoners from prison early for the purpose of removing them from the United Kingdom. This is formally known as the early removal scheme. To qualify for the scheme, a prisoner must be liable to deportation or administrative removal, in accordance with immigration legislation. The statutory instruments amend the relevant provisions in both Acts to expand the early removal scheme to enable foreign national prisoners liable to deportation or removal from the UK to be removed from prison, and hence from the UK, at an earlier point in their sentence than is currently the case. The instruments double the maximum number of days from which a prisoner may be removed from prison under the scheme; from 135 days before the halfway point of the sentence to 270 days before the halfway point of the sentence. The ERS provisions under the Criminal Justice Act 1991 apply to those prisoners who are liable to removal and are serving a sentence of less than 12 months or a determinate sentence in respect of an offence committed before 4 April 2005. The statutory instrument amends Section 46A of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, which enables the Secretary of State to remove from prison early short-term and long-term foreign national prisoners who are liable to deportation or administrative removal and are subject to the release provisions of the 1991 Act. Section 46A(6) provides the Secretary of State with the power to amend the definition of ““requisite period””, being the period prisoners must serve before becoming eligible for removal from prison under the ERS. There is a tapering mechanism, which means that the requisite period that must be served will be dependent on the length of the sentence. The order provides that a prisoner liable to removal and serving less than three years must serve one-quarter of the term before they can be removed from prison. The effect is that prisoners serving less than three months will now be eligible for the ERS, whereas under the current provisions they are not so eligible. Those prisoners serving more than three months but less than four months will be required to serve a quarter of the term. Currently, they must serve 30 days. This means that they will be eligible for removal earlier then they are currently. Prisoners serving 18 months or more, but less than three years, will be required to serve one-quarter of the term. Currently, they can be removed up to 135 days before the halfway point of their sentence. This means that they will be eligible for removal earlier than they are currently. Prisoners serving three years or more will be able to benefit by up to the maximum period of 270 days. Prisoners serving four months or more, but less than 18 months, will not be affected by this draft order. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 applies to prisoners who are liable to removal and are serving a sentence of 12 months or more in respect of an offence committed after 3 April 2005. Section 260 of that Act contains the relevant early removal scheme provisions. The provisions are very similar to those of the Criminal Justice Act 1991. The draft Early Removal of Fixed-Term Prisoners (Amendment of Eligibility Period) Order amends the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to expand the ERS to enable foreign national prisoners to be removed from prison up to a maximum of 270 days before the end of the custodial period. Again, this is the first time that this order-making power has been used. The order replaces the current time limit of 135 days with a new time limit of 270 days. That means that the Secretary of State will be empowered to remove from prison a person who is liable to removal up to 270 days before the halfway point of the sentence. Prisoners serving three years or more will be eligible to benefit by the maximum period of 270 days. I hope that it is clear to the House that the orders build on the success of the original scheme. They are admirable in that effect, and I am sure that they will commend themselves to the House. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 12 March be approved. 14th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.—(Lord Hunt of Kings Heath.)