Ministry of Justice withholds detailed foreign national conviction figures citing privacy risks

The Ministry of Justice has refused a Freedom of Information request for 2025 conviction figures broken down by foreign nationals’ nationality and specific offences, citing data protection and the risk of identifying individuals. A migration policy think-tank called the decision a “cover-up”; the dispute matters because it concerns public access to detailed crime data and how it should be balanced against people’s privacy.

The Centre for Migration Control sought offence-level details, including counts of rape, child sexual abuse, murder and manslaughter. The Government is also challenging an Information Commissioner ruling requiring the release of broader data on foreign national offending in England and Wales from 2018 to 2024, covering hundreds of thousands of offences. Previously published figures showed foreign nationals accounted for 14.1 per cent of sex offence convictions last year; the Government said nearly 12,000 foreign national offenders had been removed since July 2024, an increase of 41 per cent.