Labour has come under fire for failing to provide figures on how many deportations of foreign criminals have been blocked by court appeals.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to strengthen legislation after widespread criticism over foreign criminals evading deportation by using arguments based on the European Convention on Human Rights.
One widely cited case included an Albanian drug dealer who claimed his son disliked Albania's chicken nuggets.
Conservative peer Baroness Porter asked in Parliament for specific numbers on court-blocked removals fuelling the debate.
Home Office Minister Lord Hanson admitted his department lacks data on the number of removal attempts stopped through legal challenges, despite the Government deporting 4,436 individuals since the election.
He said: "Figures on the number of deportations that did not proceed due to the legal challenges, whether under the ECHR or otherwise, is not currently available from published statistics."
He added that a process to improve the department’s information on foreign national offenders was "underway".
Hanson said: "If this work progresses as planned, the Home Office intend to publish more detailed information on FNOs subject to deportation."
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|Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to strengthen legislation after widespread criticism over foreign criminals evading deportation by using arguments based on the European Convention on Human Rights
Baroness Porter said: “The Government needs to take urgent action on Foreign National Offenders, how can they do this if they don’t even have basic facts about what’s going on.
"With UK prisons full to bursting, getting foreign offenders to serve their sentences in their home countries needs to be a priority, as does returning foreign offenders once they’ve finished serving their sentences."
Cooper has pledged to introduce legislation to overturn dubious appeals to the ECHR’s Article 8 right to a family life.
Political opposition has called for Britain to leave the international treaty to cut down on migration numbers in the UK.
PA | Kemi Badenoch outlined her 'five tests' on Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP previously told GB News that the Conservatives have "increasingly come to the view that we do need to leave the ECHR".
Last month, Kemi Badenoch outlined her "five tests" on Britain leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, claiming she will "commit to leave" if it is "in the national interest".
Reform UK's Nigel Farage said that the first thing he would do as Prime Minister, if he were to win a general election, would be to remove the UK from the treaty.
More than 500 foreign criminals released from UK prisons have gone on to commit at least 10 new offences each while avoiding deportation, government figures at the start of this year revealed.
X / NIGEL FARAGE | Reform UK's Nigel Farage said that the first thing he would do as Prime Minister, if he were to win a general election, would be to remove the UK from the treaty
The Ministry of Justice data shows these repeat offenders are among thousands of foreign nationals who have committed fresh crimes after being freed from jail between 2021 to 2025.
Many have successfully challenged their removal from the UK using human rights laws, the European Convention on Human Rights, or pre-Brexit EU rules.
Over the four-year period, around 10,000 freed foreign offenders were responsible for approximately 40,000 crimes across the UK.
A further 1,260 criminals committed between six and nine additional offences after their release.