Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that women released from Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre (a) are able to access accommodation in the community and (b) can reach that accommodation safely upon release from detention.

Following the formal opening of Derwentside immigration removal centre last year, the first women were detained at the centre on 28 December 2021. Of these women one has been subsequently released. As of 5 January, there were nine women detained at Derwentside.

The Home Office provides accommodation for those who are destitute and have outstanding asylum claims or to individuals who fall within the scope of protection provided to potential victims of modern slavery. Additionally, the Secretary of State may provide accommodation and support for a foreign national offender who is subject to a residency condition and are either considered to pose a high risk or harm to the public or be suffering from a serious physical or mental health problem.

As set out in published Detention Services Order (DSO) 07/2013 ‘welfare provisions in immigration removal centres’ staff will provide support with planning travel to accommodation. Any individual released from detention is offered a travel warrant to reach the accommodation to which they are being released unless accommodation is being provided by the Home Office in which case transport is provided.

The published equality impact assessment and DSO 04/2020 ‘Mental vulnerability and immigration detention: non-clinical guidance’, provides information on reasonable adjustments to accommodate incapacitated and mentally ill women at the IRC, including access to legal representation. The published contract and relevant Detention Services Orders set out the arrangements to ensure adherence to rules 34, 35, 40, 42 and 45 of the Detention Centre Rules. The contract is published here: Hassockfield IRC (STA) - Contracts Finder