Detainees: Medical Examinations

(asked on 11th December 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people referred for assessment under Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001 as amended by Detention Centre Rules (Amendment) 2018 were identified as being victims of torture in each month since 2 July 2018.


Answered by
Caroline Nokes Portrait
Caroline Nokes
This question was answered on 19th December 2018

The Home Office do not hold central records of the number of individuals in Immigration detention that are referred for, or that self-refer for Rule 35 assessments. Medical records for individuals in Immigration detention are confidential and are not routinely shared with the Home Office unless the individual has consented to share this information. This includes appointments and assessments with a medical practitioner. Notification of Rule 35 assessments, which are carried out by Doctors, are therefore not routinely shared with the Home Office.

The Home Office also do not hold central records which make the distinc-tion between those accepted/not accepted as being victims of torture within the Rule 35 process under the Detention Centre Rules 2001.

We therefore cannot currently report on the number of individuals referred for a Rule 35 assessment that were identified as victims of torture, or the number of individuals identified as victims of torture that were released within 28 days of a Rule 35 report without reviewing individual cases. In any event, it cannot be said that those released within 28 days of a Rule 35 report were released solely because of a claim of torture.

The Home Office do however, centrally record the number of Rule 35 re-ports raised by Doctors under the Detention Centre Rules 2001 and the number of those who were released as a result. This information is pub-lished quarterly in Immigration Enforcement Transparency data found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-enforcement-data-november-2018.

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