Debate contribution: Prisoners: Early Removal Scheme
Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on .
- MLA
- Mrs Naomi Long
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 19 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Prisoners: Early Removal Scheme
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5795799
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As I have said, at the moment, there are around 249 foreign national prisoners in our prison system. That figure is a combination of sentenced and remand prisoners; those who are legally resident in Northern Ireland; life-sentence or indeterminate-sentence prisoners; and determinate-sentence prisoners. It is only the last category to which the scheme can legitimately apply. That is consistent with the approach in England and Wales and does not differentiate. Only 45 prisoners are currently eligible for consideration under the scheme. Of those, 16 have applied to be considered for early removal by the Home Office. There is no compelling case for legislation at this time, given the small size of the eligible cohort, the limited number of applications, the potential for increased legal challenge and the fact that responsibility for deportation decisions ultimately rests with the Home Office, as well as the stress that the Department and, indeed, the Committee are under in dealing with the burden of legislation that has already been introduced. I will, however, keep the operation of the scheme under review, because I think that we all agree that, where someone can leave early and wishes to do so, that is possibly the simplest way to deal with those cases.
205 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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