FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
For the first time, official data on foreign criminals and their crimes are being published in the United Kingdom.
The plans, to be announced on Tuesday, are said to focus on those offenders awaiting deportation from the UK.
The latest figures show there were 19,244 foreign offenders awaiting deportation at the end of 2024, an increase from 17,907 when the Conservatives left office in July and 14,640 at the end of 2022.
Despite more offenders being deported since Labour came to power, the number waiting to leave the UK is rising.
Factors are understood to include the early release of prisoners due to prison overcrowding, instability and diplomatic problems in some countries, and a large number of legal cases appealing deportation.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the decision to publish the nationalities of foreign criminals showed Labour had "bowed" to pressure from the Conservatives to reveal the data.
The latest government statistics show that 10,355 foreign nationals were held in custody in England and Wales at the end of 2024, representing 12% of the prison population.
The most common nationalities after British citizens were Albanian (11%), Polish (8%), Romanian (7%), which also represented the top three nationalities deported from the UK in 2024, according to Home Office figures.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is understood to have ordered officials to publish the details by the end of the year, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The newspaper reported that Ms Cooper ordered Home Office officials, who previously claimed it was too difficult to provide quality data on foreign criminals.
A Home Office source said that "not only are we deporting foreign criminals on a scale not seen when Chris Philp and Robert Jenrick were in charge of the Home Office, but we will also be publishing far more information about that group of offenders than the Conservatives have ever done".
The source added that ministers wanted to "ensure that the public is kept better informed about the number of foreign criminals awaiting deportation, where they are from and the crimes they have committed".
In March, the government announced £5m in funding to deploy staff to 80 prisons in England and Wales to speed up the deportation of foreign offenders.
Foreign nationals sentenced to 12 months or more in prison are subject to automatic deportation, but the Home Secretary can also remove criminals if their presence in the UK is deemed undesirable.
Lini një Përgjigje