Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many pregnant women have been held in immigration detention centres since 2015; and for how long each of them were held.

Section 60 of the Immigration Act 2016, which came into force on 12 July 2016, placed a 72 hour limit on the detention of pregnant women for the purposes of removal, extendable to up to a week in total with Ministerial authorisation.

It may not always be appropriate for healthcare professionals to disclose confidential medical information that the patient has asked not to be disclosed. Subject to these constraints, Home Office management information for the period 12 July 2016 to 30 June 2018 indicates that from 12 July-31 December 2016, 27 pregnant women were detained in the immigration detention estate; in 2017, 53 and in 2018, 23 (to 30 June). Of these women, one was detained for 102 hours with Ministerial authorisation.

Information on the detention of pregnant women prior to 12 July 2016 is not held centrally, and providing it would incur disproportionate cost.