Immigrants: Detainees

(asked on 8th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time spent in detention for the purposes of immigration control by (a) women and (b) men in each category of detainee was in each of the last five years.


Answered by
James Brokenshire Portrait
James Brokenshire
This question was answered on 11th September 2014

Published figures on people detained in the United Kingdom solely under Immigration Act powers include those held in short term holding facilities, pre
departure accommodation and immigration removal centres. Figures exclude those held in police cells, Prison Service establishments, short term holding rooms at ports and airports (for less than 24 hours), and those recorded as detained under both criminal and immigration powers and their dependants. The period of detention starts when a person first enters the Home Office detention estate. If the person is then moved from a removal centre to a police cell or Prison Service establishment, this period of stay will be included if the detention is solely under Immigration Act powers.


The table below shows the available information on length of detention, in bands, as at the last day of each year for the last five years. The Home Office publishes length of detention figures in bands as average figures can be skewed by the small number of people detained for longer periods.

The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of people detained in the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within
Immigration Statistics: April - June 2014, from the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.

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