Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre

Baroness Hamwee Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con)]

My Lords, we will hear from the government Benches next and then from the Opposition.

[Baroness Hamwee (LD)]

My Lords, I hope that the Minister will understand if I say to him gently that there is a sense in this Statement of the Government distancing themselves from responsibility. Will he also accept that there is an underlying issue, not just of practice but of policy? We are one of very few countries in Europe not to have a maximum time limit on detention. Internationally, there are a lot of good examples of constructive engagement and alternatives to detention rather than a focus on end-stage enforcement. Detention is so often not needed. I was a member of the all-party group inquiry, and the Chief Inspector of Prisons said to us that,

“at least a third, and getting on for half, of all detainees are released back into the community. And this poses the question: if they’re suitable to be released back into the community at that point, why do they need to be detained in the first place?”.