Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to revise the definition of torture used in the Home Office's at risk policy in light of that definition being ruled unlawful by the High Court.

The Government is considering how it can address the Court’s findings in relation to the statutory guidance covering the adults at risk in immigration detention policy. This includes consideration of the definition of torture that should apply in the policy. The policy already covers asylum seekers who claim to have been the victim of torture and will continue to do so.

The Court did not find that the definition of torture currently in use in the policy was unlawful. It did, however, find that the definition used between September 2016 and December 2016 had been unlawful.