Whitehall’s plan to rid the country of foreign criminals

Aid budget could be linked to deportation efforts as migrant prisoners cost taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds a year

ASSISTANT POLITICAL EDITOR THOUSANDS of foreign criminals “free-riding” on Britain’s prisons face being sent home in the coming years as part of a new deportation drive being planned across Whitehall.

has learnt that the Justice and International Development departments are working together to improve Britain’s success at removing foreign criminals.

Ministers hope the UK’s generous aid budget and the political access it brings can be used to convince counties to repatriate more citizens when they break the law in Britain.

Those involved in the talks are understood to be torn between a “carrot” or “stick” approach that would see countries either incentivised or punished for failing to co-operate.

In its most extreme form, nations that receive large amounts of foreign aid, but repeatedly fail to improve the quality of their prisons could be threatened with future cuts.

Priti Patel, the International Development Secretary, and Liz Truss, the Justice Secretary, are understood to have personally discussed the plans, which remain embryonic. A government source told “We are looking at how we can best ensure that from the money we spend on international aid, we get every other benefit that should flow with it.

“One of the things that the Department for International Development does get is very good access to government ministers and the machine of government in foreign countries.

“Quite often we are doing things that foreign governments care about, such as helping people, or at the very least they want us to do something.

“They therefore want to see us and there is an opportunity to use that to press the point [on foreign criminals] and try to make sure when we spend the money we get the most for it.”

The news will be cheered by Brexit campaigners who repeatedly drew attention to Britain’s failures to deport foreign criminals during the referendum campaign.

There are close to 10,000 foreign nationals in Britain’s prisons, according to a recent House of Commons briefing, with each space costing the taxpayer around £40,000 a year.

There are currently more citizens from Poland in British prisons than from any other overseas country – close to 1,000 – followed by offenders from Ireland, Romania, Jamaica and Albania.

The UK’s ability to deport them is constrained by human rights laws and the European Union’s free movement rules, which give an EU citizen the right to live where they like in the bloc.

Before the referendum, Eurosceptics repeatedly pointed to ministers’ inability to deport convicted murders, rapists and other serious criminals as proof that Britain would be safer outside the EU.

In particular, just weeks before the vote they latched onto new figures that showed close to 6,000 foreign offenders were living in British communities after being released.

David Cameron made repeated efforts to try to improve the government’s record at deporting foreign criminals, including helping to fund new prisons in other countries.

But, in what proved to be the final months of his premiership, Mr Cameron admitted before a Commons select committee that he “should have done better” on the issue.

Ms Truss expressed concern about the number of foreign national offenders in Britain.

“I think it’s wrong that other countries are free-riding on our prisons and justice system. Absolutely I’m looking at ways to deal with this,” she said.

“We are looking at a number of ways of dealing with this, but it is a real problem that we do want to deal with.”

Asked whether she would like to have reduced the number of foreign criminals in British prisons by the time she leaves the role, Ms Truss said: “I certainly want to have made progress.

“I do recognise this is a difficult issue that will take time to sort out, but I am absolutely determined to get a grip on it. It’s a serious problem.”

Ms Truss also hinted at tighter restrictions on foreign criminals who are released, saying: “We are constantly vigilant and making sure that the public are protected. That is the number one job of the Justice Secretary.”

While discussions have only recently begun, ministers are exploring how to use foreign aid to encourage countries to repatriate citizens who commit crimes.

One option would be holding back aid for nations that fail to comply, or using the development budget to get them on side.

A source said ministers were favouring the “carrot rather than the stick” in early discussions, but remained openminded about the best way forward.

The change fits with Ms Patel’s determination to refocus the UK’s ringfenced aid spending – a bugbear for many Tory backbenchers – on areas of national interest.

She said last month: “My approach will be built on some core Conservative principles: that the way to end poverty is wealth creation, not aid dependency; that wealth is ultimately created by people, not by the state; that poor countries need more investment and trade, not less.

“And that we need to empower the poorest to work and trade their way out of poverty, not treat them as passive recipients of our support.”

Another avenue would be to use trade deals, which Britain will have to

‘If we paid for foreign countries to have their prisoners, we would save around £130 million a year’

strike with countries around the world after Brexit, to tie in agreements over prisoner deportations.

One government insider wants a plan to pay other countries to take back their criminals, which was drawn up by the Justice Department in recent years, to be reconsidered.

The research is understood to have shown that while it costs the taxpayer around £40,000 to keep a foreign criminal locked up in Britain, it would cost half that if housed in their country of origin.

“If we paid for them to have their prisoners, we would save around £130million a year. It is worth exploring again,” the source said.