Section 27: Application of section 35(1) of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 to prisoners liable to removal from the UK
247.Subsection (1) provides that section 46(1) and part of section 50(2) of the 1991 Act are to cease to have effect. The practical effect of that provision is that foreign national prisoners liable to removal from the United Kingdom and sentenced under the provisions of the 1991 Act to sentences of 4 years and over will no longer be ineligible, at the halfway point of sentence, to have their cases considered by the Parole Board for early release on licence under section 35(1) of the same Act. The provisions only apply to offenders whose offences were committed before 4 April 2005. Under the existing provisions of the 1991 Act such prisoners’ applications for early release can only be determined by the Secretary of State. This provision is made to address the fact that existing provisions were the subject of a declaration of incompatibility as regards Article 14 (when read with Article 5) of the ECHR in the case of R (Hindawi and Headley) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] UKHL 54.
248.Subsection (2) ensures that the definition of “liable to removal from the United Kingdom” which is used in the 1991 Act applies equally here.