§ Mr. LetwinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his 1505W policy regarding the serving of sentences imposed by British courts on foreign nationals in their own countries. [64377]
§ Mr. Hilary Benn[holding answer 27 June 2002]: We have bilateral prisoner transfer agreements with 66 countries. Requests from prisoners who are nationals of these countries to serve their sentences in their own country are normally approved where they meet the criteria set out in the relevant agreement, namely: prisoners must normally be a nationals of the country concerned: have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment which is final and enforceable (i.e. no outstanding appeals against conviction or sentence); and have at least six months left to serve at the time the application is submitted. Decisions on individual applications require the consent of both jurisdictions. It is at present our policy normally to refuse requests if, as a consequence, the prisoner would be likely to receive a significant reduction in time to serve.
We are working to increase the number of countries with whom we have repatriation agreements and expect to have signed up to nine more agreements in the course of this year.