Part 3: Immigration Offences and Enforcement Immigration Offences and Penalties Section 48: Matters Relevant to Decisions Relating to Immigration Bail
Overview: The Early Removal Scheme helps to remove as many FNOs from England and Wales as early as possible, minimising the chance they may be released into the community before deportation can take place.
	Background: Determinate sentences are made up of a custodial period, spent in prison, and a licence period, spent in the community. To maintain confidence in the justice system, FNOs will still be required to serve at least half of the requisite custodial period of the sentence in custody before being eligible for removal under the ERS. The new "stop the clock" provision will ensure that any FNO who returns to the UK following removal from custody and deportation will remain liable to serve the remainder of their requisite custodial period in prison – i.e., the sentence is paused at the time of removal from prison, to be resumed should the prisoner return. If at the point of removal under ERS an FNO is in prison having been recalled, if they should then return to the UK, upon their return to custody they would be treated as if they had been recalled to prison and require a new decision of the Parole Board in order to be released before the end of their sentence.
	Sections 260 and 261 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 ("the 2003 Act") set out the provisions of the Early Removal Scheme, which is applicable to all determinate sentenced Foreign National Prisoners in custody who are liable to removal from the United Kingdom (UK).
	Subsections 3 to 8 amend section 260 of the 2003 Act, which sets out the provision for the early removal of prisoners liable to removal from the UK.
	Subsection 3 sets out the provisions that enable the Secretary of State to remove from prison any prisoner liable to removal from the UK once they have served the minimum pre-removal custodial period, which is the later date out of a) half of the requisite custodial period or b) 12 months before the end of the requisite custodial period. The Secretary of State may remove the prisoner from prison whether or not the Parole Board has directed the prisoner’s release.
	Subsection 4 makes technical changes to subsection (2C) to ensure the power to remove continues to not apply to terrorist prisoners.
	Subsection 5 replaces paragraph (4)(b) to provide that a person removed from prison under the section remains liable to be detained in pursuance of their sentence both after removal from prison and in the event of their return to the UK.
	Subsection 6 makes provision, by way of new subsection (4A), for a person removed from prison under the section to not have any day or part of a day when they are not in prison or otherwise detained in pursuance of their sentence to count towards the sentence. This effectively "pauses" a prisoner’s sentence from the day after their removal from prison until the day before they are returned to custody in pursuance of their sentence. Unless otherwise directed by the Secretary of State, any provision in Chapter 6 of Part 12 of the 2003 Act which requires determination of how many days of their sentence a person has served would not include this period. That includes for the purposes of determining when a person’s case should be referred to the Parole Board. New subsection (4B) further provides that where the Secretary of State has, before their removal from prison, referred a person’s case to the Parole Board and such person is subsequently removed from the UK before the Parole Board has disposed of that person’s case, the reference will lapse upon their removal from the UK. Should the person return to the UK, their case will be determined in accordance with new Schedule 19B to the 2003 Act.
	Subsection 7 omits subsection (5). Accordingly, for the duration of the "paused" period, the Secretary of State has no duty or power exercisable in relation to the prisoner as if they were in prison.
	Subsection 8 amends subsection (6), to ensure the Secretary of State retains the power by order to amend the time periods which determine the minimum pre-removal custodial period.
	Subsection 9 makes provision for the release and other provisions modified by new Schedule 19B to the 2003 Act, to apply to those removed from prison who have been removed from, and then return to, the UK.
	Subsection 10 provides that where a person is serving concurrent terms (sentences served at the same time), they may not be removed from prison unless and until they are eligible to be removed from prison in accordance with each term they are serving.
	Subsection 11 inserts Schedule 6 as new Schedule 19B to the 2003 Act.