Immigration Detention: Shaw Review

Kate Green Excerpts

Tuesday 24th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I know very well the two cases to which my hon. Friend refers. As we are still working on Windrush cases, there may well be further cases, sadly, from which we will need to learn lessons as well. I can give my hon. Friend confidence that we are doing everything we can to make changes to ensure that the evidence is followed. For example, I have announced a change today to pilot an automatic bail process of two months, rather than waiting for four months. We need to learn more from the Windrush cases, which is why the lessons learned review will be important, and I am sure that it will show us what more we can do to improve detention.

[Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)]

I thank the Home Secretary for his statement. He mentioned the role of detention gatekeepers, but will he look at how screening can be made more proactive and less dependent simply on information that the Home Office already holds so that those detention decisions are made with the fullest possible information and at the very earliest stage of the process?

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady makes a very good point. Following the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Alex Burghart), I referred to two reasonably well known cases from Windrush of two individuals who were unlawfully detained. Those cases showed that a number of lessons needed to be learned. One was that the gatekeeper process was not working well enough. Part of that was to do with a lack of information. Had information been accessed from other sources—perhaps public sources where information was held—we might have had a different outcome. She makes a very important point and it will be looked at.