Foreign national prisoners could now serve as little as 10% of their time in jail before being deported back to their home countries, under new Government plans to free up 500 prison places.

The Ministry of Justice has said that planned changes to its Early Removal Scheme, coupled with upcoming sentencing reforms, would lower the minimum portion of a sentence served in custody from 20% to 10% for foreign nationals.

Foreign nationals currently make up around 12% of the prison population in England and Wales and all those sentenced to 12 months imprisonment or more are subject to automatic deportation – unless they fall within defined exceptions.

PAS remains available to advise and support foreign national prisoners as regards their legal, human and healthcare rights as well as issues of detention or deportation. For more information as to how PAS can help, visit this page.

For more information on government changes in FNP legislation, click here.