Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has proposed that details of nationality, immigration and visa status should be recorded whenever a criminal is convicted.
Mr Jenrick said the data would help inform deportation and visa policy and will table amendments to the government’s criminal justice bill.
“We want to apply a higher level of scrutiny to high-risk nationalities,” he said.
Rishi Sunak is under pressure to cut net immigration numbers.
Revised estimates published in November showed net immigration – the difference between the number of people entering the UK and those leaving the UK – will reach a record high of 745,000 in 2022.
Mr Jenrick resigned as immigration minister in December in protest at the Prime Minister’s plan to deport Rwanda.
His amendments, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, would require Parliament to issue a report each year collating the nationality, visa and asylum status of all offenders convicted in the courts of England and Wales in the past 12 months. means to submit to.
The Telegraph says Mr Jenrick’s plan is backed by more than a dozen Conservative MPs, including Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sir Robert Buckland.
Once the amendments are introduced, they could be selected for a vote in the full House as the bill continues to pass through parliament, and if supported by a majority of MPs, it could become part of government policy.
Mr Jenrick told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that in his role as immigration minister “we [the UK] They were importing crime. ”
He said: “In the area of drug production, the National Crime Agency has made clear that a significant proportion of the UK drug trade is supported by Albanian drug production.”
He added that this led to “a great deal of time spent trying to stop it.”
Mr Jenrick said the risk-based strategy was already being applied to visa applications.
“What I’m proposing is that this data on crime plays a part in that. We want to apply a higher level of scrutiny to high-risk nationalities,” he said. Ta.
Denmark and some U.S. states are applying similar approaches, he said.
Jenrick said that in Denmark, “some citizens are actually more law-abiding than Danish citizens, but many are not and, as in the case of Denmark, some citizens are responsible for violent crime.” It is very noticeable that this has happened.”
He said the data would allow the government to “study” crime statistics and make policy choices.
“The public should recognize the trade-offs of immigration,” he said. “There’s a myth going around that it’s a pure commodity. I don’t think that’s always the case.”
Convicted criminals are already subject to visa restrictions. British government guidelines state that foreigners who have been convicted of a criminal offense in the UK or abroad and sentenced to imprisonment for 12 months or more will “generally” be refused a visa to enter the UK.
