According to the government, ERS enables eligible foreign nationals to be taken out of prison early for the sole purpose of removal or deportation from the UK.
Offenders are not subject to further imprisonment after removal from the the country, but are barred from ever returning and liable to serve the rest of their sentence if they do.
Last year, the government introduced changes to ERS allowing prisoners with no right to be in the country to face deportation 30% into their prison term, external, rather than the previous 50%.
The legislation also extended the removal window from 18 to 48 months before the end of the custodial part of a sentence.
Summer, who moved from Lincolnshire to King’s Lynn following the crash, found out Cielevicius might be eligible for the scheme in October 2025. She said it caused her constant worry.
She contacted her MP, James Wild, who raised the issue with Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on 11 February.
On 20 February, Wild received a letter from Lord Timpson, the prisons minister.
Summer said the letter confirmed that Cielevicius was eligible for release under ERS as a foreign national who had served 30% of his custodial sentence.
However, the letter did not confirm a decision had been made in his case, she added.
On 23 February, the family were told Cielevicius had been deported that morning in a letter from the Prisons and Probation service.
“Yet again as victims we were the last to know,” Summer said. “The minister must have known on the Friday that he was going to be deported.”