Alison Pickup analyses the changing nature of detaining foreign prisoners
In WL (Congo); KM (Jamaica) v SSHD [2010] EWCA Civ 111, [2010] All ER (D) 221 (Feb) the appellants were foreign national prisoners (FNPs), detained beyond the end of their sentence pending their deportation from the UK under powers contained in Sch 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 (the 1971 Act).
It had emerged in the course of litigation that during a period from approximately April 2006, when the so-called “foreign national prisoners crisis” broke, until September 2008, officials in the Home Office’s Criminal Casework Directorate (CCD), which dealt with the detention and deportation of FNPs, had been operating a blanket policy of detaining all FNPs, despite the fact that their published policy stated that there was a presumption in favour of release in all cases. In September 2008, the published policy was amended so that it now contained a presumption in favour of detention of FNPs, which was then applied by CCD. This policy operated until January 2009, when, following the judgment of the Administrative
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