Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of people detained for immigration purposes.

The Home Office is clear that in tackling immigration abuse we will use alternatives to immigration detention wherever possible. This includes community engagement by our immigration enforcement teams, and the development of the compliant environment to prevent access by illegal migrants to work, services and benefits, designed to encourage compliance and maximise voluntary returns; and enforcing return through same-day removals.

Whilst detention will continue to be used to enforce returns where necessary, depriving someone of their liberty will always be subject to careful consideration and will take account of individual circumstances. Our aim is to focus on developing an immigration enforcement system founded upon compliance and less reliant upon detention.

Consequently, we are reducing the size of the immigration detention estate, with the Home Office transferring The Verne immigration removal centre back to Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service from January 2018.