Britain's 'staggering' cost of foreign nationals in UK prisons torn apart by ex-prison governor

The cost of Britain's prisons holding foreign criminals has been branded "staggering" by an ex-prison governor.

Speaking to GB News, Reform UK's Prisons Advisor Vanessa Frake urged the Labour Government to "persuade countries" to take their criminals back.

A GB News exclusive investigation found the annual bill for incarcerating foreign offenders has reached a total of £629,408,766.

Out of the 87,342 prisoners held in British prisons across England and Wales, 10,487 are foreign nationals.

Reacting to the figures, Ms Frake told GB News: "The cost to this country for foreign national prisoners is staggering.

"It's a very long, drawn-out process, which kind of goes from three main areas."

Detailing those areas, the former prison governor said: "The problem is a lack of identity documents for these people. Quite often they get rid of their passports, so the Home Office then has to write to the country that they originate from, and that process is very slow. Sometimes the country refuses.

"And there are of course the ECHR claims. Those under Article 8, right to life, right to family for those who have family in this country and of course, there is administration errors as well."

Arguing that the Labour Government has "tried" to find a solution to the problem, Ms Frake noted the UK's deal with Albania.

She explained: "It is an incredibly slow process and it hasn't really speeded up, although the Government has tried.

"They've just done a deal with Albania to send 200 prisoners back, but that comes with certain conditions, like improving their prison service, giving them electric Volkswagens, etcetera."

Ms Frake expressed her outrage at the UK paying as much as "£32 a day" to Albania to hold their criminals in UK prisons.

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She stated: "It costs something like £109 a day in this country to keep a foreign national in prison, and we're going to give the Albanians £32.00 a day, so it's still not quick.

"And Albania, interestingly enough, is the country that we have the most foreign national prisoners from.

"Then comes Ireland and then Poland, and there are others of course, but they are the three main countries of origin of our foreign national prisoners."

Ms Frake made clear the Labour Government "cannot get away with" putting foreign criminals on planes - there must be a deal between both countries.

She concluded: "We're not going to get away with it by just putting them on a plane, we've got to persuade these countries to take these individuals back."

Under changes announced last year, prisoners with no legal right to remain in the UK are set to be deported after serving just 30 per cent of their sentence, to ease pressure on prisons and cut the cost to the taxpayer.

In a statement, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "This Government’s record on deporting foreign national offenders speaks for itself with more than 8,700 removed since July 2024 – up 32 per cent on the 19 months prior.

"We are also changing the law so foreign prisoners can be deported earlier than ever before as we restore order and control to our borders."