Home Office ‘does not have a firm grip’ on removal of foreign national offenders, report warns

David Neal warned that the inability to provide reliable or consistent data and management information was of particular concern.

His comments follow an inspection into the processes and procedures in place to remove FNOs, with a particular focus on the immigration prison teams, prioritisation of cases for removal, the effectiveness of early removal schemes and the Home Office’s strategy for managing and reporting FNO data.

Publishing his report on Thursday (June 29), Mr Neal said: “In this inspection, I found the Home Office’s inability to provide reliable or consistent data and management information of particular concern.

“This had a clear impact on the ability of senior managers to plan strategically and at an operational level, with staff relying on a myriad of spreadsheets to record case details, monitor workflow, and set priorities.

“This is not an efficient use of resources and ultimately undermines both the efficiency and effectiveness of the operations in the Foreign National Offenders Returns Command (FNORC).

He said “frustratingly”, this is something that has been repeatedly encountered and commented on in previous reports relating to Home Office functions.

“It is clear to me that the Home Office does not have a firm grip on its caseworking operations in FNORC, and the shortcomings with data and management information add to this challenge,” Mr Neal said.

“Staff throughout the command lacked a clear sense of priorities and I found a disproportionate focus on managing cases, rather than making decisions and progressing the removal of FNOs. If my assessment is correct, this inspection points towards broader concerns for the Home Office in anticipation of a likely increase in immigration detention, removals and caseworking as a consequence of the IMB (Independent Monitoring Board).

According to the latest figures published in January this year, the prison population in England and Wales as at December 31, 2022, was 81,806, of which 9,797 (12 per cent) were classified as foreign nationals.

Of those, 2,951 (30.1 per cent) were on remand, 6,261 (63.9 per cent) had received a custodial sentence, and 585 (six per cent) were classed as ‘non-criminal prisoners’.

The report notes that this latter cohort relates to detainees being held in prison under immigration powers, typically where a prison sentence has been served but the Home Office has taken the decision to maintain detention.

Mr Neal said the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) was “not working well”.

“This means that FNOs who want to leave the country are not being removed quickly,” he said. “This is largely down to delays in caseworking, which add to the significant challenges and costs of detaining FNOs in the prison estate.

“I found that little, if any, progress had been made in this area since the National Audit Office made similar findings in 2014.”

However, Mr Neal said the Facilitated Return Scheme (FRS) had seen an improved performance in 2022, but this was mostly driven by a change in policy that has brought EEA national prisoners into the scope of FRS and by the current focus on removing Albanian nationals.

“That said, processes and management of the scheme could be clearer and more tightly managed,” he added.

Mr Neal found senior leaders in the Home Office had a good awareness of the problems they faced in relation to caseworking and the removal schemes.

“Measures to improve efficiency and effectiveness including an increase in resources to process more deportation decisions, an end-to-end review of caseworking, and plans to simplify processes were underway,” he said. “However, it was too early for me to assess the effectiveness of these initiatives.”

Mr Neal has made four recommendations in the report, of which the Home Office has fully accepted three and accepted/partially accepted the fourth.

“I am encouraged to hear that work is already under way to tackle the issues the inspection identified,” said Mr Neal.

These include making better use of data, improving performance reporting, reviewing caseworking to eradicate duplication and drive efficiencies to enable more timely decisions, and developing case ownership and management processes.

Responding to the report, the Home Office said it confirms issues that were already well-known to the FNORC management team.

“Senior leaders in the FNORC had a good awareness of the problems and were at the time of inspection already seeking to advance initiatives to address them,” it said.

While the report was positive regarding the work of many of the FNORC staff, the Home Office considers it “underplays the complexity associated with the FNO process”.

“As was set out in our response to the report at the factual accuracy stage, the FNO process is not simple and linear; it is complicated and has many interdependencies,” the Home Office said.

“These include delays caused by multiple and successive claims, non-compliance by FNOs in their re-documentation and removal, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The impact of Covid has continued, with delays in the courts at both criminal trials and immigration appeals, impacting on our ability to deliver a prison to plane removal plan for FNOs.

“There is strong commitment across the department to ensuring we learn from the report’s findings. The Director General of Immigration Enforcement will convene a focused Executive Board with all directors on the recent inspections and audits to agree prioritisation of resource across immigration enforcement to support the delivery of improvements.

“The FNO Taskforce, which seeks to develop the department’s working relationship with HMPPS colleagues, will also support the delivery of key reforms to increase and speed up prison-to-plane removals.

“The report has helped shape and focus the action which is already being taken.”