Dear Mr Watts

Thank you for email of 26 December in which you have requested information about the amount of money paid to foreign national prisoners removed from the United Kingdom in 2008. This falls to be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I apologise for the delay in replying.

The UK Border Agency does not pay any money to foreign national criminals. However in October 2006 the UK Border Agency introduced the Facilitated Returns Scheme. Under the provisions of this scheme, foreign national prisoners are eligible to receive reintegration assistance in their country of origin. However, no cash is paid to any of these individuals, with the exception of the standard £46 discharge grant which is given to all prisoners (including UK nationals) upon completion of their sentence. The level of reintegration assistance is variable depending on the individual circumstances of each case. This may take the form of education, accommodation, medical care, training or assistance with starting a business. This assistance is administered by the International Organization for Migration.

In a letter to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 23 July 2008 the Chief Executive of the UK Border Agency, Lin Homer, advised that in 2007 the scheme had generated significant savings and accounted for around 25% of all foreign prisoner removals in 2007 - roughly half of the overall increase on the previous year. For the first year of the scheme (October 2006 to October 2007) we only spent around £350,000, inclusive of administrative costs. For that period we achieve 880 removals of foreign prisoners meaning that the scheme generated considerable savings in detention costs alone. The Chief Executive is due to update the Home Affairs Select Committee on last year's figures in the summer.

If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the UK Border Agency sending a substantive reply to your original request and should be addressed to:

UK Border Agency
Central Freedom of Information Team
11th Floor
Lunar House, Short Corridor
40 Wellesley Road
Croydon
CR9 2XZ

During the independent review the department's handling of your information request will be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. Should you remain dissatisfied after this internal review, you will have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yours sincerely

Jonathan Nancekivell-Smith

Criminal Casework Directorate

UK Border Agency