Overview

• Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has proposed reducing the custodial period for foreign national offenders to 30% of their sentence, down from the current 50%.
• Ministers will expand the early removal window from 18 months to 48 months before sentence end, allowing earlier deportations.
• Deportees will face lifetime bans on returning to the UK and any unauthorised return will reactivate their original sentence; terror convictions are excluded from the scheme.
• The Ministry of Justice estimates the measures could free around 500 prison places each year and cut the average £54,000 annual cost per inmate.
• Legislation will be laid before Parliament this week and, if approved, is expected to come into effect by September.