Lord Avebury
Main Page: Lord Avebury (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Lord Avebury
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons on the management of Brook House immigration removal centre.
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, the Government accept the broad conclusions of the chief inspector's report, and we have acted swiftly to implement most of the recommended improvements. It is a fact that the vast majority of detainees in Brook House have committed very serious crimes, including involving drugs, sex and violence. We are absolutely committed to meeting the challenges posed by these detainees, and additional improvements will be made in coming months. We will respond to the report in mid-September.
Lord Avebury
My Lords, perhaps my noble friend would like to join me in thanking Dame Anne Owers for her nine years of sterling work highlighting inconvenient truths about prisons and detention centres. Unfortunately, those years end today. Considering that it costs more to keep a detainee in a removal centre than in prison and far more than it does to send a boy to Eton, will my noble friend consider granting temporary admission to the detainees who cannot be sent back to their countries of origin, such as the 27 Somalis and Zimbabweans in Brook House who are costing more than £1 million to accommodate every year? Will the Government also think about suspending plans for four new immigration removal centres by taking steps to halt the rise in the detainee population, such as the improvements in the bail system recommended in the Bail for Immigration Detainees report published today?