Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2021 to Question 162658, on Detention Centres: Females, whether her Department has plans to undertake an equality impact assessment on the practice of detaining women at immigration removal centres that predominantly hold men.

The Home Office has acquired the former Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham and will open it as an immigration removal centre (IRC) for around 80 women by the autumn. We plan to supplement the new Hassockfield IRC by continuing to provide some detention capacity for women at Colnbrook, Dungavel and Yarl’s Wood IRCs.

The operational capacity for women under normal operating conditions is 18 at Colnbrook IRC, 12 at Dungavel IRC and 304 at Yarl’s Wood IRC. Yarl’s Wood has additional capacity of 68 for adult families more than half of whom could be women.

An Equality Impact Assessment will be completed for the change to predominantly male accommodation at Yarl’s Wood IRC.