The following tables contain information for England and Wales, which is taken from management information. As regards British national prisoners transferred to England and Wales, the Directorate makes no distinction between prisoners transferred under the EU Framework Decision on the Transfer of Prisoners and the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. The transfer can therefore be voluntary or compulsory. Please note that transfers to several countries listed in the tables below have not taken place, either because the UK does not hold nationals of these countries in our prisons or because there are concerns that prisons may violate Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The transfer of prisoners to and from Scotland and Northern Ireland is a decentralised issue. I understand that, under these 26 EU agreements, only 200 prisoners have been forcibly transferred to other EU countries, which would therefore make little difference. The fact is that at any given time, 10% of our prisons are foreign criminals. The best way to reduce overcrowding is to send these people back to the prison of their own country. Will the minister negotiate more mandatory transfer agreements for prisoners so that we can reintegrate these people into prisons in their own residences? Our exit from the European Union will have an impact on the transfer of prisoners to the EU. If we leave the EU without a „deal“, we will lose access to the EU Framework Decision on the transfer of prisoners. This means having to return to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and its Additional Protocol, which we consider to be a less effective mechanism than the EU agreement. That is why, in the event of a no-deal scenario, we should be prepared to reduce the number of transfers in and out of the EU. The United Arab Emirates is currently considering entering into a transfer contract.
The Early Removal Scheme is the most important method of eliminating foreign offenders from prison at an early stage. In 2017/18, more than 2,000 foreign offenders were abducted under this program. . . .