§ MR. LIDDELLI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department the number of aliens summarily dealt with and convicted by the various magistrates in the Metropolitan Police area during each of the past five years 1649 for which Returns are available, the nationality of the aliens so convicted, and the nature of the offences for which they have been convicted.
I beg also to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state the number of aliens convicted each year during the last five years for which Returns are available for indictable offences at the Old Bailey, the Clerkenwell Sessions, and the South London Sessions, the nationalities of the convicted aliens, the various terms of imprisonment inflicted, the number of cases of aliens reported for deportation, the actual number of aliens deported for criminal offences, and the total estimated cost to the Treasury already incurred during the past five years, and to be incurred before their sentences expire, in bringing alien criminals to conviction at these courts and in maintaining them in prison after conviction.
§ MR. GLADSTONEI regret that I cannot reply to the detailed Questions put to me, as the information necessary for the purpose is not available, and could not be obtained with any substantial degree of accuracy, even by a most laborious search. I can, however, say that in the last five years for which the figures are available there were received into London prisons on conviction, summary or other, the following numbers of persons who, according to their own statements, were born in foreign countries: —In 1901, 1,667; in 1902, 2,090; in 1903, 2,132; in 1904, 2,309; in 1905,2,206. Further, in the year 1906, the first year of the operation of the Aliens Act, 332 aliens were recommended by metropolitan Courts for expulsion; and out of these 202 were expelled during the year, many of the aliens being at the end of the year still in prison undergoing their sentences. I may add that full information as to the: operation of the expulsion provisions of the Aliens Act is in preparation and will be published in due course.