Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the safeguards and standards are for Government organisations or sub-contracted companies involved in forced deportation processes.

The Home Office expects the highest standards from staff and contractors working with detainees.

Enforced removals from the UK are carried out on behalf of the Home Office by a private sector provider. Since 2014 the Home Office has required all staff involved in such removals to have successfully completed training in the techniques set out in the Home Office Manual of Escorting Safely (HOMES). HOMES is a bespoke restraint system developed by the National Offender Management Service (now Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, HMPPS) in consultation with the Independent Advisory Panel for Non Compliance Management and encourages compliance in those being removed to prevent the need for physical restraint techniques.

All uses of restraints or force during an enforced removal from the UK are reviewed by the Home Office Use of Force Monitor with support from HMPPS and specialist medical professionals as required.

Enforced removals processes are also subject to independent monitoring by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons and Independent Monitoring Boards.