Immigration staff are committed to deporting foreign criminals, the head of the service declared yesterday in an effort to defuse the latest row to hit the Home Office.

Lin Homer, chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency, was responding to a Prison Service memo which said that her officials had “no interest” in sending home those jailed for less than 12 months. She played down the importance of the memo and tried to portray a tough approach by saying that some of the offenders would be deported on Christmas Day. “There’s not that many other people taking flights that day so we put prisoners on those flights,” she said.

The Home Office admitted later that only four foreign prisoners would be put on flights home on December 25. A total of 70 would leave between December 24 and January 31, the department said, which is slightly fewer than two a day.

There are more than 11,000 foreign prisoners in jails in England and Wales and the memo appears to contradict a pledge by Gordon Brown that foreigners committing crimes would be deported.

Nick Herbert, the Shadow Justice Secretary, said that Mr Brown’s statement was at odds with the actions of immigration officials. He said that the words had led to big headlines saying that he was going to remove foreign criminals, and that was the impression that the Government has repeatedly sought to give. “The fact is that we now have this memo that reveals not only are they not removing the majority of these foreign national criminals, but actually that they have no interest in doing so,” he said.

Mr Herbert also criticised the Government for not putting forward a minister to respond to the issue, which was dealt with in radio and television interviews by Ms Homer.

“The Government refused to put up a minister to respond to this issue, instead hiding behind a civil servant, because they knew they were caught out. But Lin Homer only added to the confusion. The Government are still not saying whether they will deport all foreign national prisoners, as Gordon Brown promised, or not,” he said.

The Prison Service instruction to governors makes clear that the Border and Immigration Agency has little interest in deporting those given jail terms of less than 12 months.

The instruction from Michael Spurr, the deputy director-general of the Prison Service, said: “The Criminal Casework Directorate of the Border and Immigration Agency have confirmed to us that as a rule they have no interest in pursuing foreign prisoners serving sentences of less than 12 months for deportation.”

The memo went on to say that the agency would pursue foreigners sentenced to less than 12 months if there was a court recommendation for deportation or they were already subject to deportation proceedings.

Ms Homer played down the significance of the memo, saying that it was in line with government policy, and that offenders jailed for less than a year could still be deported if a court recommended it.

She said: “The Prime Minister was categorical earlier this year that we are committed to the removal of foreign national prisoners who commit serious crimes in this country.

“Nothing in this document changes that and, in fact, this year we have removed more foreign nationals than ever before. We have repeatedly said that we will target the most dangerous first, which is why we are initially targeting those who have served more than 12 months.”

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that Mr Brown had been “made to look like a complete chump” by the Prison Service memo. “There is no follow-through at all,” he said. “It’s a complete failure of joined-up government between what the Prime Minister is saying and what officials are doing.

“It’s at odds with common sense. If you have a foreign convict they should be deported at the end of their sentence. It’s as simple as that.”

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