The latest official figure is: 10,487 foreign nationals were in custody on 31 March 2026. That was 12% of the total prison population of 87,342. Of those 10,487, 6,458 were sentenced prisoners, 3,588 were on remand, and 441 were classified as non-criminal.

In this article

1. Nationality
2. Remand vs sentenced
3. Offences
4. Sentence length
5. Deportation status

The latest official figure is:

• 10,487 foreign nationals were in custody on 31 March 2026.
• That was 12% of the total prison population of 87,342.
• Of those 10,487, 6,458 were sentenced prisoners, 3,588 were on remand, and 441 were classified as non-criminal.

The five largest foreign national groups were:

So, importantly, 'foreign national' does not mean 'foreign national offender serving a sentence'. The 10,487 includes people on remand who haven't necessarily been convicted, as well as the 441 classified as non-criminal.

The most recent monthly prison statistics go up to 30 June 2026, but the detailed nationality breakdown is published quarterly, so the March figure is currently the latest detailed official figure available.

One figure that may be particularly relevant to what we were discussing

The government separately records foreign national offenders (FNOs) who have completed their criminal sentence but remain in custody under immigration powers pending removal.

On 31 March 2026, there were 220 such people being detained in prisons under immigration powers. That's in addition to the 10,487 foreign nationals in the prison population figure above, rather than a figure you should simply add without considering the different classifications.

If your underlying question is 'how many of the people currently in British prisons are foreign nationals, and how many of them could potentially be deported?', I can break the 10,487 down by nationality, offence, sentence length, remand/sentenced status and deportation status. That gives a much more revealing picture than the headline 12%.

Break down the 10,487 prisoners by nationality, offence, sentence length, remand/sentenced status and deportation status

The government introduced that table specifically for this purpose.

The 10,487 figure is at 31 March 2026 and consists of 3,588 on remand, 6,458 sentenced and 441 classified as non-criminal.

1. Nationality

These percentages are rounded by the MoJ, so the calculated numbers should be regarded as approximate rather than exact.

There is a useful distinction here: foreign national means nationality, not country of birth. Someone born abroad but holding British nationality is counted as British in these statistics.

2. Remand vs sentenced

This is quite important when interpreting the 10,487.

So 3,588 people - more than one in three foreign nationals in custody - had not yet received a prison sentence at the snapshot date, although some of those on remand were convicted but awaiting sentence.

I am cautious about describing all 10,487 as 'foreign national offenders serving prison sentences.'

3. Offences

Here we need to be particularly precise.

The new MoJ Table 1_A_26 gives the prison population broken down by:

nationality group × custody type × sex × offence group.

It identifies the offences associated with foreign nationals, but it does not provide the same level of detailed cross-tabulation for every nationality.

The major offence categories in the overall sentenced prison population at 31 March 2026 were:

These figures are for all sentenced prisoners, not just foreign nationals.

The important point is that we shouldn't simply apply those percentages to the 6,458 foreign nationals. Foreign-national prisoners have their own offence distribution, and the underlying MoJ table is needed to calculate it properly.

4. Sentence length

This is another area where the statistics can easily be misunderstood.

The 10,487 includes people on remand, so sentence length doesn't apply to roughly a third of them.

For the 6,458 sentenced foreign nationals, the MoJ prison-population data records sentence-length bands.

The bands include:

• up to 6 months
• more than 6 months to less than 12 months
• 12 months to less than 2 years
• 2 years to less than 4 years
• . 4 years to less than 10 years
• . 10 years or more life/indeterminate sentences

There is an interesting development here: the prison population serving 12 months-<2 years and 2-<4 years increased by 11% year-on-year, while the population serving the shortest sentences was broadly stable.

But I don't want to give you invented numbers for the foreign-national subset. The official data is available in the MoJ's 8 MB Prison Population Data Tool, which contains the underlying cross-tabulations.

5. Deportation status

This is perhaps the most important distinction in your question.

Being a foreign national prisoner does not automatically mean that person is going to be deported.

There are several categories.

A. Remand prisoners

The 3,588 foreign nationals on remand have not necessarily been convicted.

They therefore aren't generally in the position of being deported as a consequence of a completed prison sentence.

The government explicitly noted in its foreign-national-offender policy material that 3,781 of 10,772 FNOs in June 2025 were on remand and therefore not eligible for deportation.

B. Sentenced prisoners potentially subject to deportation

Among the 6,458 sentenced foreign nationals, some will be subject to deportation action.

But not all will be deportable.

There can be:

• British citizenship complications;
• immigration status issues;
• human-rights claims;
• asylum/protection claims;
• uncertainty over nationality;
• inability to obtain travel documents;
• countries refusing to accept the person;
• legal appeals;
• other barriers to removal.

C. Foreign nationals already detained under immigration powers

Separately, there were 220 foreign national offenders being held in prisons under immigration powers on 31 March 2026, after their criminal custody position had changed.

That is a different population from the 10,487 prison-population figure.

6. What happens to them after prison?

This is where the Home Office statistics become useful.

For the year ending December 2025, 8,234 foreign national offenders left immigration detention.

Among those:

The most common offence groups among those FNOs leaving detention were:

1. Drug offences - 3,081
2. Theft - 1,070
3. Violence against the person excluding homicide - 1,042

And their sentence lengths were particularly interesting:

• 2-4 years: 2,218
• under 1 year: 32%
• 8 years or more: 7%

These figures concern FNOs leaving immigration detention during 2025, however, rather than the 10,487 people physically in prison on 31 March 2026. So they should not be mixed together. The picture I'd draw from the figures

If we start with:
10,487 foreign nationals in custody
we can legitimately say:
3,588 - remand
↓ 6,458 - sentenced
↓
441 - non-criminal

But we cannot legitimately say:
'10,487 foreign criminals who are all awaiting deportation.'
That would be incorrect.
Nor can we say:
'6,458 sentenced foreign nationals are all deportable.'

Again, incorrect.

The really interesting question is actually:

Of the 6,458 sentenced foreign nationals, how many are serving less than 12 months, 1-2 years, 2-4 years, 4-10 years, 10+ years or life - and how many are actually subject to deportation?

The government's newly improved FNO statistics now contain nationality, offence group and sentence-length information, while the prison statistics contain the custody/offence/nationality breakdown.

Clarifying 'On remand', means someone is being held in custody while their criminal case is still going through the courts.

They have not necessarily been convicted or sentenced.

For example:

1. Someone is arrested and charged with an offence.
2. A court decides they should not be released on bail.
3. They are sent to prison on remand.
4. Their trial takes place later.
5. If they are convicted, they are then sentenced.
6. If they are acquitted, they should be released.

So, in the figures we were discussing, the 3,588 foreign nationals on remand should not automatically be described as convicted criminals.

Why might someone be remanded in prison?

A court can refuse bail where, for example, it considers there is a significant risk that the defendant might:<

• fail to appear at trial;
• commit another offence;
• interfere with witnesses or the investigation;
• otherwise obstruct the course of justice.

There are also cases where someone is remanded after conviction but before sentencing. So 'on remand' doesn't necessarily mean they haven't been convicted - it means they aren't currently serving a sentence imposed following conviction.

An important distinction from the previous figures

Of the 10,487 foreign nationals in custody:

Sentenced	6,458	Serving a sentence imposed by a court
On remand	3,588	Being held pending trial or sentencing
Non-criminal	441	Held in prison custody but not classified as criminal prisoners
Total	10487

So roughly one third (34%) of the foreign nationals in custody were on remand, rather than serving a sentence.

Non-criminal441Held in prison custody but not classified as criminal prisoners This is an important distinction when looking at claims about deporting foreign prisoners: you cannot simply take the 10,487 figure and say that all 10,487 have been convicted, sentenced and are awaiting deportation.