Court deportation guide revised

The Sentencing Guidelines Council reviewed deportation last year

Judges in England and Wales are expected to get revised guidance on when they should recommend that foreign criminals ought to be deported.

The Sentencing Guidelines Council was sent a report on the topic a year ago.

Since then the Home Office has admitted that it did not act on judicial recommendations that many foreign criminals should be deported.

More than 1,000 foreign criminals were freed from prisons, including 160 recommended for removal by the courts.

The mistakes occurred over the past seven years, but 288 foreign nationals were released after Home Secretary Charles Clarke knew of the problem.

Time-worn

The issue has highlighted concerns about how judges come to recommend deportation and why their advice is sometimes not followed.

A year ago the Sentencing Advisory Panel, which advises the Council, reported that the principles on which the courts recommend deportation were 25 years old and "time-worn".

It also pointed out that practices varied from court to court.

One idea under consultation is that homicide, sex offences and crimes involving drugs and firearms should automatically lead to a recommendation for deportation.

The panel also said that the most recent set of figures - from 1996 - show that a quarter of the courts' recommendations for deportation were not acted on.