HC Deb 19 October 1992 vol 212 cc63-4W
Sir John Wheeler

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons are currently serving sentences of imprisonment as drug couriers(a) in total and (b) who are foreign nationals either without the right of abode in the United Kingdom, or who would be subject to deportation.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

The information readily available does not distinguish the different types of drugs offence. On 30 June 1992, the latest date for which information is available, about 3,440 prisoners were held under sentence in prison service establishments in England and Wales for drugs offences, excluding any where drugs offences were not the principal offence. Of these about 1,020 were recorded as foreign nationals and the nationality of a further 140 was not recorded. Information on their liability for deportation on completion of sentence is not recorded centrally.