Section 260: Early removal of prisoners liable to removal from United Kingdom, Criminal Justice Act 2003

Where a fixed-term prisoner is liable to removal from the United Kingdom, the Secretary of State may remove the prisoner from prison under this section at any time after the prisoner has served the minimum pre-removal custodial period (whether or not the Board has directed the prisoner's release under this Chapter).

The minimum pre-removal custodial period is the longer of—

30% of the requisite custodial period, and

the requisite custodial period less 4 years.

Subsection (1) does do not apply in relation to a prisoner to whom section 247A applies.

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A prisoner removed from prison under this section—

is so removed only for the purpose of enabling the Secretary of State to remove him from the United Kingdom under powers conferred by—

Schedule 2 or 3 to the Immigration Act 1971, or

section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 (c. 33), and

so long as remaining in the United Kingdom, and in the event of a return to the United Kingdom after removal, is liable to be detained in pursuance of his sentence.

Where a person has been removed from prison under this section, a day on which the person has not spent any part of the day in prison or otherwise detained in pursuance of their sentence is not, unless the Secretary of State otherwise directs, to be included—

when determining for the purposes of any provision of this Chapter how much of their sentence they have (or would have) served, or

when determining for the purposes of section 244ZC(2), 244A(2)(b) or 246A(4)(b) the date of an anniversary of a disposal of a reference of the person's case to the Board (so that the anniversary is treated as falling x days after the actual anniversary, where x is the number of days on which the person has not spent any part of the day in prison or otherwise detained in pursuance of their sentence).

Where—

before a prisoner's removal from prison under this section their case had been referred to the Board under section 244ZB(3), 244ZC(2), 244A(2) or 246A(4), and

the person is removed from the United Kingdom before the Board has disposed of the reference,

the reference lapses upon the person's removal from the United Kingdom (and paragraph 8 of Schedule 19B applies in the event of their return).

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The Secretary of State may by order—

amend the fraction for the time being specified in subsection (2)(a);

amend the time period for the time being specified in subsection (2)(b).

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Paragraphs 36 and 37 of Schedule 20B (transitional cases) make further provision about early removal of certain prisoners.

Subsection (2C) does not affect the continued liability to detention under subsection (4)(b) of a prisoner removed from prison under this section before subsection (2C) came into force and in such a case—

the "requisite custodial period" in subsection (4)(b) has the meaning given by section 247A(8), and

subsection (5) is to be read as including reference to section 247A.

Section 260: Early removal of prisoners liable to removal from United Kingdom

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