Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any detention capacity for women is currently available at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre; if not, whether they plan to make such capacity available; and if so, when.

The immigration removal estate is kept under ongoing review to ensure that the Home Office has sufficient capacity, in the right places and that it provides value for money.

The Home Office opened Derwentside immigration removal centre (IRC) for women in November 2021. We plan to supplement the new IRC by continuing to provide some detention capacity for women at Colnbrook, Dungavel and Yarl’s Wood IRCs. We have already completed design work to ensure the women’s space at Yarl’s Wood will be entirely separate from male resident space and we are planning to transition part of the Yarl’s Wood site back to an immigration removal centre for around 60 women. We will open the refurbished accommodation in late summer.

In order to meet operational needs and demands, we will continue to operate the immigration removal estate, including Yarl’s Wood, in a flexible manner and in line with the STHF Rules 2018 and the Detention Centre Rules 2001, as appropriate.