Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential (a) merits and (b) savings to the public purse of alternatives to the use of detention in monitoring people facing removal from the UK.

The Home Office uses a number of tools to ensure that the vast majority of individuals who are liable to removal from the UK are managed in the community. These include reporting mechanisms, a new simplified immigration bail, and electronic monitoring for some foreign national offenders.

We regularly review our practices, taking account of external research into alternatives to detention. Following a recent meeting between officials and representatives of the UNHCR and from Canada and Sweden, to discuss best practice, opportunities for further work are being explored with a range of faith and community groups and other non-governmental organisations. The merits and associated costs will be an integral part of this ongoing work.