Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that immigration detainees can access websites that contain information about immigration law in all immigration detention centres.

It is a contractual requirement for all of the Home Office’s suppliers operating immigration removal centres to provide detainees with reasonable and regulated access to the internet. This provision enables people in detention to remain in contact with family, friends and legal representatives, and to prepare for removal.

Detention Services Order 04/2016 provides published guidance on access to the internet. This includes ensuring that material which may be relevant to a detainee’s immigration case is easily accessed, as long as it does not fall within a prohibited category or website.