Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre: Females
(asked on 2nd February 2023) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women were detained at Derwentside immigration removal centre between (a) 1 July 2022 and 30 September 2022, (b) 1 October 2022 and 31 December 2022 and (c) 1 January 2023 and 31 January 2023.
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) operates free legal advice surgeries in immigration removal centres (IRCs) in England under the Detained Duty Advice Scheme (DDAS). Individuals who are detained are entitled to receive up to 30 minutes of advice regardless of financial eligibility or the merits of their case. There is no restriction on the number of surgeries an individual may attend. If an individual who is detained requires substantive advice on a matter which is in scope of legal aid, full legal advice can be provided if the statutory legal aid means and merits criteria are met.
Individuals detained in IRCs can also access privately commissioned legal advice, including legally aided advice provided through means other than the DDAS.
Access to legal advice across the immigration removal estate is facilitated through remote means (by telephone and video conferencing) as well as in-person visits on request. All people in IRCs are provided with a mobile phone and have access to landline telephones on request, fax machines, email and video calling facilities which can be used to contact legal representatives, family, or friends.
The total number of DDAS and non-DDAS legal visits held at Derwentside IRC, including the means by which they were facilitated, from 1 July 2022 to 31 January 2023 is set out in the table below.
|
| Date | ||
|
| 1 July 2022 – 30 September 2022 | 1 October 2022 – 31 December 2022 | 1 January 2023 – 31 January 2023 |
DDAS Appointments | Total | 93 | 65 | 31 |
In-person | 71 | 57 | 31 | |
Skype | 20 | 7 | 0 | |
Telephone | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
Non-DDAS Appointments | Total | 36 | 56 | 0 |
In-person | 18 | 28 | 0 | |
Skype | 18 | 28 | 0 | |
Telephone | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
The Home Office publishes data on people in detention on the last day of each quarter in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’, as well as data on people entering detention during each quarter. The latest data relate to the end of September 2022.
Data on people in detention are published in table Det_D02 of the ‘Detention detailed tables’ and data on people entering detention are published in table Det_D01. The data can be broken down by current place/first place of detention of detention (including Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre), and sex.
Figures relating to people in detention at the end of December 2022 will be published on 23 February 2023.