Ministers are trying to rapidly increase the number of foreign criminals being deported by avoiding lengthy court battles.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk revealed the Home Office wants more foreign crooks to be given “conditional cautions” to avoid them clogging up court backlogs.
These would act as an alternative to prosecution and would see the criminals expelled from the UK.
Mr Chalk revealed there are some 3,300 offenders amongst the backlog of 65,000 cases waiting to be heard.
Mr Chalk said: “Data on foreign national offenders (FNOs) is collected at the point when an individual becomes an offender – in other words, at the point of conviction.
“But in addition the MoJ (Ministry of Justice) records the numbers in custody awaiting trial who are FNOs and that stands at approximately 3,300.
“In terms of driving the figures down, the Home Office is working to increase take-up of conditional cautions which lead to FNOs being expelled from the UK in place of prosecution in appropriate cases.”
Prisons minister Edward Argar said last month that 3,577 FNOs were removed from the UK in the latest 12-month period ending September 2023. The Minister said the Government was making “good progress” with removals and hailed a 19 per cent year-on-year increase.
Concern over the impact of foreign criminals, including the cost of housing them in prisons, has intensified in recent years.
At least 10,000 of the 85,851 criminals behind bars are foreign nationals.
