Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress she has made in implementing Recommendation 63 of the Review into the Welfare in Detention of Vulnerable Persons by Stephen Shaw on investigating the development of alternatives to detention.

In response to Stephen Shaw’s 2016 Review and follow-up report of 2018, and after working closely with UNHCR, the UK government announced the Community Engagement Pilot (CEP) Series.

The first Community Engagement Pilot, Action Access, provided women who would otherwise be detained with a programme of support in the community. This pilot concluded on 31 March 2021 and the independent evaluation of Action Access was published on 24 January 2022.

The second pilot, the Refugee and Migrant Advisory Service, supported both men and women in the community and remained in operation for two years until June 2022. The independent evaluation of the Refugee and Migrant Advisory Service is expected early in the new year.

We will use the UNHCR evaluations of these pilots to inform our future approach to case-management focused alternatives to detention.