Miscellaneous and General Requirements to confirm nationality
Foreign nationals comprise 12% of the prison population in England and Wales29. The Government aims to remove as many Foreign National Offenders ("FNOs") as quickly as possible to their home countries, to protect the public, to reduce costs and to free up spaces in prison. The number of FNOs removed from the UK has increased from 4,539 in 2011/1230 to 5,277 in 2014/1531. More than 25,000 FNOs have been removed from the UK in the period 2010 to 201532.
	The Immigration Act 2014 provided for a revised deportation process so that, in cases where there is no real risk of serious irreversible harm to the individual, an FNO can only exercise his or her right of appeal from outside the UK, thereby allowing for the more rapid deportation of many FNOs. Most FNOs do not appeal once returned to their home country. By the end of 2015 more than 2,600 FNOs have been removed under the new 'deport first, appeal later' powers, since they came into force in July 2014.
	However, the Public Accounts Committee (in its report Managing and removing foreign national offenders, 12 January 2015) called for more to be done to identify FNOs earlier in the criminal justice process. The report stated: "Identifying FNOs early, including obtaining relevant documents such as passports, is crucial to speeding up removal at a later stage and managing the risk posed by the FNO while in prison."
	The Government believes that establishing nationality at the earliest opportunity post-arrest is ideally achieved through seizing identity documents. Successfully establishing identity early post-arrest helps to facilitate overseas criminal records checks - if serious offending is revealed this can allow the Home Office to consider deportation action even in cases where an individual is released without charge. Missing opportunities to establish the nationality of individuals early in the process can cause significant delays later, when seeking to deport FNOs and illegal immigrants from the United Kingdom.
	However, successful identification is particularly difficult where an individual is not carrying a document at the time of arrest. Although it is already possible for officers to search premises for identity documents, this is resource intensive and to require officers to do so in every case would be a disproportionate use of police resources. The provisions in sections 159 to 161 seek to supplement these powers to give the police and immigration officers more opportunities to establish identity and nationality on arrest, and obtain documents from suspected FNOs where the police and immigration officers cannot utilise existing search powers or the individual cannot provide documents whilst in custody. A statutory requirement (backed by criminal sanction) on all defendants, regardless of their nationality, to state their name, date of birth and nationality in court will provide an added incentive for suspected foreign nationals to comply with the police in establishing their identity on arrest. It will also provide a second opportunity to capture this information for those who failed to give these details to the police.