Prisoners: Foreign Nationals
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals currently serving custodial sentences for sexual offences are held in prisons in England and Wales.
Answered by Jake Richards
A breakdown of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) by offence group is published in the Annual prison population statistics and the most recent publication can be found here: prison-population-2025.ods. Please see Table_1_A_26, which shows the breakdown as of 30 June 2025.
As these statistics are published annually, we are not able to provide a more recent breakdown.
Between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2025, we removed over 2,700 FNOs under the Early Removal Scheme, that is more than the number removed over the same period in the 2024, and a significant 74% increase compared to the same period in 2023. It will free up much-needed space in our prisons.
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