Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people detained in immigration removal centres have identified as (a) Christian, (b) Sikh, (c) Muslim, (d) Jewish, (e) Hindu and (f) atheist in each of the last five years.

Under Rule 21 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001, if detainees on admission to an immigration removal centre (IRC) wish to declare that they belong to a particular religion, that information must be recorded. This information is recorded by the IRC service providers on their own internal detainee management systems and is used to inform the religious provision available at the IRC.

Due to the differing recording methods in place at each of the individual centres information on the religion of people detained in IRCs in each of the last five years could only be provided at disproportionate cost.