The UK government is planning to sign further deals with EU countries to take back foreign prisoners languishing in British jails. Labour hopes to save millions of pounds and free up space in UK prisons for British offenders.
Deals have already been struck with Albania and Poland to repatriate some of their most dangerous criminals currently serving sentences in the UK. Now ministers are hoping to expand the arrangement with other EU countries through bi-lateral treaties, after they dropped plans to include the measure as part of last month’s “re-set” deal with the bloc.
According to data for March, almost 3,500 criminals in British jails were EU citizens representing just under 4% of the total prison population.
Poles make up the single largest group of EU offenders in UK jails, followed Romanians, Lithuanians, Portuguese and Dutch.
Downing Street signed a deal with Poland in November, which replicates a similar agreement with Albania that was struck under the previous Conservative government in 2023.
That deal paved the way for some 200 Albanian criminals – among them 17 serving life sentences – to be returned to their native country to serve out the rest of their jail terms.
The UK government pays Albania to accommodate the prisoners, at a fraction of the cost of housing them in Britain.
The cost of housing someone with a life sentence for a minimum of 30 years in Britain is about £1.6 million, compared with £360,000 in Albania.
The UK was previously able to transfer prisoners back to their country of origin without their consent when it was an EU member state.
However since Brexit, a prisoner’s consent is now required before they can be deported.
The government said: “We routinely discuss co-operation on prisoner transfers with partner countries, including potential new prisoner transfer agreements.
“We have removed 16 per cent more foreign offenders over the last year and prisoner transfer agreements are just one of the tools we have to do that.”
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, the justice minister, negotiated the new deal with Poland.
The deal will help free up space in Britain’s overcrowded jails, which are currently running at 99% capacity.