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 5795803
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Northern Ireland Prison Service has established processes in place to ensure that the Home Office is notified of all foreign national offenders who receive a custodial sentence within 10 working days of sentencing. Following notification, responsibility for assessing an individual's immigration status and determining whether deportation action should be pursued rests solely with the Home Office. The Home Office considers each case in accordance with UK immigration legislation and policy. Where it issues a lawful immigration detention authority, pending a deportation decision or removal arrangements, Northern Ireland Prison Service continues to hold the individual in custody beyond their custodial release date in accordance with that authority. The decisions themselves are a matter for the Home Office, and neither DOJ nor the Prison Service has any role in determining whether a foreign national prisoner should be deported. If the Home Office confirms that removal is not being pursued, the individual will be released in accordance with their custodial release date.
160 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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