Issue 411  16th August 2025

Foreign criminals will for the first time face immediate deportation after sentencing as the Government strengthens border security through the Plan for Change. The new power announced today (10 August) will get foreign national offenders out of our prisons, saving money for British taxpayers and protecting the public from dangerous criminals. The change follows legislation introduced by the Government in June, which will mean most foreign prisoners can now be deported after serving 30 percent of their prison time, rather than 50 percent.

Today, the Government has announced it will go even further—stripping back a decades-old law to introduce new powers for immediate deportation from prison. Offenders who are deported are barred from re-entering the UK, keeping their victims and the wider public safe. Terrorists, murderers and others serving life sentences will continue to have to serve their prison sentence before being considered for deportation... The changes will apply to prisoners serving fixed-term, or determinate, sentences and discretion to not use the measure on a case-by-case basis will be retained. For example, where there is clear evidence a prisoner is planning further crimes against UK interests such as posing a threat to national security they will not be released. Foreign offenders make up around 12% percent of the total prison population with prison places costing £54,000 a year on average. The measures will apply to all foreign national offenders already in custody as well as those newly sentenced, ensuring that taxpayers’ money will not be wasted on incarcerating foreign criminals in the future...

Police have been encouraged to consider disclosing the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile cases, after facing mounting pressure over the details they make public. The interim guidance from the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) aims to reduce the risk to public safety where there are high levels of misinformation about an incident. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the guidance as a "step forward", adding that the government and the public want "greater transparency". It comes after authorities were accused of hiding the identities of two men, reported to be Afghan asylum seekers, charged over the alleged rape of a 12-year-old in Warwickshire.

The guidance, which comes into immediate effect, forms part of a wider review of the College of Policing's professional practice for media relations. It was developed following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Home Office in recognition of "public concerns", and to ensure police processes were "fit for purpose in an age of rapid information spread". Decisions on releasing such information will remain with police forces, with wider legal and ethical considerations also taken into account, the NPCC said. Verifying a suspect's immigration status is up to the Home Office, not the police, it added...

Police have arrested 474 people at a demonstration in London in support of banned group Palestine Action. The Metropolitan Police said 466 protesters were arrested for supporting the group, five for assaults on police officers, two for public order offences, and one for a racially aggravated offence. Scores of people simultaneously unveiled handwritten signs with the message "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action" at the protest, organised by Defend Our Juries at Westminster's Parliament Square. It was the biggest protest since the government proscribed the group in July under the Terrorism Act of 2000, making membership of or support for it a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. No officers were seriously injured, and the Met Police said the number of arrests was the largest made by the force on a single day in the last 10 years...

A group claiming to be hackers who stole more than two million records from the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has threatened to publish the information unless one of their members is ‘freed’. Members of the ShinyHunters ­cybercrime group made the threat on a new Telegram channel, The Times reported. The group said in the Telegram post that if the MoJ did not ‘free’ the unnamed individual by 6am on Monday, ‘we will leak all the GitHub repositories and the Legal Aid Agency Ministry of Justice database’. The threat did not appear to have been carried out as the deadline passed and the Gazette understands it has not been possible to verify the legitimacy of the Telegram posts...

The LAA’s online portal was taken offline in May after the MoJ discovered that legal aid applicants’ personal data dating back to 2010 had been accessed. On 31 July the MoJ revealed the hack was bigger than first thought. An update added to their announcement of the breach said: ‘We have updated the notice to reflect that further investigations have shown that some data going back to 2007 may have been accessed as well as information linked to the partners of applicants. Previously we stated the data went back to 2010.’ The data breach has caused months of disruption for practitioners, who have been grappling with the LAA’s growing list of contingency measures...

Extra specialist staff, a bolstered senior leadership team and improved training for frontline officers will be deployed urgently at HMP Pentonville. The jail received an Urgent Notification in July, with inspectors finding poor living conditions, prisoners not being released at the end of their sentence due to administrative errors, and inadequate support for prisoners at risk of self-harm.

The Prison Service has today (15 August) published a new action plan in direct response to the notification – with the aim of drastically driving up safety and standards at the prison. The prison’s senior management will be bolstered with a dedicated lead responsible for overseeing work to address the inspector’s concerns. A review to minimise sentence calculation errors and ensure prisoners are released on time has already been completed. The prison has intensified its cleaning regime and is auditing every cell to ensure it meets at least a minimum required standard. Additional specialist staff have been deployed to better support vulnerable prisoners and the regime...