Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many referrals her Department has made to the children's section of the Refugee Council related to detainees in immigration removal centres who her Department believed to be children in each year since 2009-10.

Since the Home Secretary announced the immediate closure of Yarl’s Wood for families with children on 16 December 2010 it has not been the policy of Her Majesty’s Government to detain those we believe are children whilst their asylum claims are under consideration. We do not have records for the number of referrals made in 2009-10.