05-07-2025
Now SNP back Westminster plans to send foreign prisoners back to their home countries
SNP ministers have admitted they support sending foreign criminals back to their home countries to ease the overcrowding crisis in Scotland's prisons.
A 'law enforcement' paper drafted by the Scottish Government states that immigrants languishing behind bars are contributing to the 'unprecedented pressure' on jails.
Latest Scottish Prison Service (SPS) figures, show that 679 inmates held in Scottish jails are foreign-born out of a total of 8,145.
At the same time, prison bosses have expressed serious concern that a spike in overall prisoner numbers may spark riots.
Already, Justice Secretary Angela Constance has authorised the early release of almost 500 inmates serving shorter sentences to free up space.
Now, the Scottish Government has said it backs the expansion of so-called prisoner transfer agreements (PTA), which see criminals sent back home to serve their sentences.
The deals have already been signed with Albania and Poland by the former Tory and the current Labour government respectively.
A new paper released by the Scottish Government states: 'The government supports the UK Government's work to agree prisoner transfer agreements with certain EU member states but believes that a more holistic approach would deliver greater results.
'In particular, securing an EU-wide Prisoner Transfer Agreement which allows for more streamlined procedures for the transfer of prisoners should be a priority for any discussion around improving UK-EU cooperation.'
PTAs with EU member states allow criminals to be automatically repatriated if they meet certain criteria, such as length of sentence.
In return for taking the offender back, the UK pays the prisoner's country of origin to accommodate them, which costs far less than holding them in British jails.
It has been hailed as an effective way to free up space in prisons while saving millions of pounds.
Last night Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr welcomed the SNP's position.
He said: 'At last. It's a relief to see this soft-touch SNP government finally adopt a common-sense Scottish Conservative proposal to tackle Scotland's prisons population crisis.'
The Scottish Government document sets out that 'leaving the EU meant that the UK left the world's most highly developed and sophisticated ecosystem for law enforcement and criminal justice co-operation', and that 'Brexit made the UK and Scotland less safe'.
One particular concern highlighted by civil servants was that leaving the EU had made it harder to send sentenced criminals back to their own country.
They said the UK now relies on a 1980s convention, which 'has created a number of additional barriers to prisoner transfers'.
The report reads: 'These additional barriers have contributed to the unprecedented pressure on Scotland's prison system and broader public services.'
The SNP has already tried to ease pressure on crammed jails by releasing some inmates early.
The Scottish Conservatives have consistently called on the Scottish Government to expedite the deportation of foreign criminals to free up prison space.
Leader Russell Findlay said ministers could use a discretionary power to release some offenders up to 180 days early to facilitate their removal by the UK Home Office.
The UK Government is reforming deportation and removal rules which will make it easier to remove foreign criminals committing crimes in the UK.
UK Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said foreign criminals should expect to be deported and said last month that human rights law should not prevent foreign criminals from being removed.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: 'The government supports increased co-operation with the EU and an EU-wide prisoner transfer agreement as we have pointed out that one of the harms of Brexit is that important matters such as prisoner transfer have been made more difficult.'
