§ Mr. MallonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the policy of the Prison Service in relation to applications for prison transfers to prisons in the country of origin of the applicant. [16233]
§ Sir John WheelerResponsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Prisons Service under its chief executive, Mr. Alan Shannon. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from A. D. Shannon to Mr. Seamus Mallon, dated 26 February 1996:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your parliamentary question regarding Prison Service policy in respect of repatriation of prisoners.The repatriation of prisoners to and from the United Kingdom is governed by the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984. Repatriation may be considered where the country to which application is being made is a signatory to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons or to the Commonwealth Scheme for the Transfer of Convicted Offenders or has a bilateral agreement with the United Kingdom.To be eligible for repatriation a prisoner must have received his final sentence for an offence which must be a criminal offence under the law of the receiving country, by a national of that country or have close family ties there and as a general rule have at least 6 months of his sentence to serve at the time of application. Repatriation requires the consent of both jurisdictions and the prisoner concerned. In considering whether to consent to a repatriation request it has been the policy of Her Majesty's Government not to agree to a transfer where such a move would result in a substantial reduction in time left to serve.