Foreign criminals should be deported immediately to free up “valuable space in prison”, Labour’s sentencing tsar has declared.
Burglars, drug dealers and thugs sentenced to under three years will be removed as “soon as operationally possible”.
And the early removal scheme will be extended, David Gauke said.
Foreign criminals can currently be deported after serving half of their sentence. But this will be brought forward to 30 per cent, it has emerged.
It comes as new figures, published by the Ministry of Justice on Monday, revealed the prison population is continuing to rise and is soaring to near-record levels.
Mr Gauke, who will publish his review into sentencing this week, said: “There is no place in our society for criminals who come to this country and break our laws, but it is clear the current system for deporting foreign criminals is not working – and the taxpayer is footing the bill.
“Those sentenced to custody for less than three years should expect to be immediately deported, and further changes should be made to the early removal scheme to enable the Home Office to remove foreign national offenders as quickly as possible.
“This will free up valuable space in prison, save the taxpayer money and ultimately protect the public.”
Around 12,000 inmates in prisons are foreign nationals. Taxpayers splash out £540million on housing foreign criminals, because it costs £54,000 a year to house one prisoner.
Proposals to deport foreign offenders will include anyone found guilty of multiple burglaries, assaults or drug offences.
The review has also recommended scrapping the current law which says ministers can only deport foreign criminals after they have served half of the custodial part of their sentence.
The prison population has soared to 88,103, just 418 below the record high of 88,521, despite thousands being released early to ease overcrowding behind bars.
The scheme meant the total had fallen by nearly 3,000 from the peak by the end of 2024 to 85,618, but since the start of 2025 the number has increased again.
The MoJ’s permanent secretary, Amy Rees, warned last week that, based on the current trajectory, the prison population rises by 3,000 each year and is now expected to hit zero capacity for male prisons by November this year.
The MoJ last week announced offenders recalled to jail will only be held for 28 days – prompting widespread fury from victims and campaigners.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the changes to recall are necessary, because if prisons overflow “we reach a total breakdown of law and order”.
Legislation to bring in the changes is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.
An additional 1,350 cell spaces tend always to be kept free above the overall operational capacity of the prison estate in England and Wales as a contingency measure so jails can cope with a sudden influx of inmates or change in the make-up of the prison population, according to the MoJ.
Ms Mahmood also announced that three new prisons will be built, starting this year, as part of a “record prison expansion”, after securing a capital investment of £4.7 billion.
Ministers have promised to find a total of 14,000 cell spaces in jails by 2031.