Written question asked by Lord Grayling (Conservative) on Wednesday, 1 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 20 April 2009. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Monday, 20 April 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

Deportation: Offenders

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign national prisoners were deported in 2008; and how many of those had been convicted of firearms offences.

Answer: In March 2009 the quarterly National Asylum Statistics were published and it reported that there were 5,395 foreign national prisoners who had been removed or deported in 2008. The information on the numbers of those who had previously been convicted of firearms offences, or any other offence types, can only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. In order to obtain the full criminal history of such individuals it would be necessary to examine individual case files held by the UK Border Agency and cross-reference that information with police records.

Secondary information