Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people died in UK immigration detention centres from suicide or self-inflicted wounds between 1 March 2017 and 1 March 2018.

Any death in immigration detention is subject to investigation by the police, the coroner (or Procurator Fiscal in Scotland) and the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

In the period 1 March 2017 to 1 March 2018 there have been 8 deaths of individuals while detained in an immigration removal centre under immigration powers or shortly after release. Of these deaths none has yet been determined by a coroner to be a self-inflicted death.

Staff at all immigration removal centres are trained to identify those at risk of self harm so that action can be taken to minimise the risk. All incidents of self harm are treated very seriously and every step is taken to prevent incidents of this nature. Formal risk assessments on initial detention and systems for raising concerns at any subsequent point feed into established self harm procedures in every IRC, which are in turn underpinned by the Home Office Operating Standard on the prevention of self-harm and Detention Services Order 06/2008 Assessment Care in Detention Teamwork (ACDT).