Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing detention capacity to a level that would facilitate the deportation of between 100,000 and 150,000 people per year.

The Home Office (specifically Immigration Enforcement), is currently expanding detention capacity through an active programme that will deliver an additional 1,000 beds over the coming years at Campsfield (Oxfordshire) and Haslar (Hampshire). This expansion will significantly increase the number of enforced returns once operational.

Decisions on the required estate size will be based on several factors, including:

• The number of individuals eligible for removal;
• Opportunities to increase throughput within the current system through casework transformation;
• The need to deliver additional capacity in the most cost-effective way.