Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to ensure that people in Colnbrook immigration removal centre are able to access (a) legal representatives, (b) their families and (c) other forms of support.

Detained individuals are advised of their right to legal representation, and how they can obtain such representation, within 24 hours of their arrival at an Immigration Removal Centre (IRC), including Colnbrook IRC.

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) operates free legal advice surgeries in IRCs in England. Individuals who are detained are entitled to receive up to 30 minutes of advice regardless of financial eligibility or the merits of their case. There is no restriction on the number of surgeries an individual may attend. If an individual who is detained requires substantive advice on a matter which is in scope of legal aid, full legal advice can be provided if the statutory legal aid means and merits criteria are met. Following a change of operations in line with Government advice on social distancing, the LAA Detained Duty Advice scheme is currently operating by phone. The duty solicitor will directly contact individuals who wish to access this service.

All individuals in IRCs, including Colnbrook, are provided with a mobile phone and have access to landline telephones, fax machines, email and video calling facilities which can be used to contact legal advisers. In exceptional circumstances, and for individuals facing imminent removal from the UK, face to face legal visits can occur where other means of contact (video calling, telephone, email) are not feasible.

Social visits to IRCs and Short-Term Holding Facilities (STHF) are operated in line with Government COVID-19 control measures at a local, regional or national level and are carefully controlled and risk-assessed in line with Government advice on social distancing. Detained individuals are being encouraged to utilise virtual means of social contact including video calling, email and mobile telephone; additional weekly mobile phone credit is being provided to support continued social contact in these unprecedented times.