Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department is taking steps to reduce the number of vulnerable women held in immigration detention.

The Home Office are committed to ensuring the proper protection and treatment of women, including vulnerable women, in detention and will seek to facilitate voluntary return as an alternative to detention and enforced removal. Further information can be found in published operational guidance DSO 06/2016 Women in the Detention Estate.

We fully accept that some groups of individuals can be at particular risk of harm in immigration detention. This is the basis of the adults at risk in immigration detention policy DSO 08/2016 Management of adults at risk in immigration detention, which strengthens the presumption against detention for vulnerable individuals.

Women who are victims of torture, trafficking or sexual violence are all covered by the adults at risk in immigration detention policy. Anyone who falls within the scope of the policy is regarded as unsuitable for detention unless the specific immigration circumstances in their case are considered to outweigh the vulnerability issues.

Plans are in place to convert Derwentside immigration removal centre (IRC) from a female only centre, into a detained facility for men, reducing female capacity across the existing estate.