Foreign national offender statistics explained
Custody, immigration detention and return figures describe different stages and populations. This page keeps the official definitions and reference periods attached.
Three figures, three meanings
None of these is the number of crimes committed by foreign nationals during 2026.
Who is counted as an FNO?
For Home Office return statistics, a foreign national offender is someone who is not a British citizen and is or was convicted in the UK of any criminal offence, or convicted abroad of a serious criminal offence.
A returned FNO may have arrived years earlier, may or may not have claimed asylum, and may have lived in the UK before the conviction and return. The return data does not establish their original immigration route.
Irish nationals require particular care
Irish people are a large foreign-national group in the prison table but are not generally subject to removal. Prison rankings and return rankings therefore answer different questions.
People leaving immigration detention
Official breakdowns first became available in 2026 following changes to Home Office data infrastructure.
Most common published nationalities
Albanian1,960
Romanian1,058
Polish743
Most common published offence groups
Drug offences2,849
Violence against the person excluding homicide1,132
Theft offences1,112
What changed in the latest year
There were 5,962 FNO returns in the year ending June 2026, the highest annual figure since 2017 but still below the 2016 peak. EU nationals accounted for just over half of returns.
Official data warning
The Home Office says the underlying person-level system previously had quality issues. New nationality, offence-group and sentence-length breakdowns were added after infrastructure improvements and may still be revised.
Follow the source trail
Custody snapshot
Use Ministry of Justice offender-management statistics for prisoners by nationality and custody status.
Open the prison publication →Immigration detention
Use Home Office detention tables for people entering or leaving immigration detention.
Open the detention publication →Returns from the UK
Use Home Office returns tables for FNO removals and returns by nationality.
Open the returns publication →Related crime and demographic evidence
Each page uses a different population, reference period and statistical unit. Keep those definitions attached when moving between them.