Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons the Government has decided not to impose a time limit on detention of immigrants.

It is not possible to detain someone indefinitely under immigration powers. In order to detain an individual pending removal there must be a reasonable prospect of removal in a reasonable timeframe.

Each case is determined on its own merits. The introduction of an arbitrary time limit could lead to the release of foreign criminals and illegal immigrants even when their removal is imminent.

We always detain people for the least time necessary. Published statistics show that, in the year to June 2015, over 90 per cent of individuals leaving detention had been detained for four months or less.