Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Detention Services Order (DSO) 06/2016 Women in the detention estate, whether the constant supervision of women subject to an Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork (ACDT) plan who are detained in (a) Colnbrook and (b) Dungavel immigration removal centres is only undertaken by female detainee custody officers.

Staff at all immigration removal centres (IRCs) are trained to identify those at risk of self-harm so that action can be taken to minimise the risk. All incidents of self-harm are treated very seriously, and every step is taken to prevent incidents of this nature. Formal risk assessments on initial detention and systems for raising concerns at any subsequent point feed into established self-harm procedures in every IRC, which are in turn underpinned by the Home Office Operating Standard on the prevention of self-harm and Detention Services Order 06/2008 ‘Assessment Care in Detention Teamwork (ACDT)’.

As set out in Detention Services Order 06/2016 ‘Women in the detention estate’ the constant supervision of women held in the immigration detention estate who are subject to an ACDT plan must be undertaken by a female detainee custody officer.