Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to collect data on the number of LGBTQI people held in immigration detention.

Published Detention Services Orders (DSOs) 2/2016 and 11/2012 set out how individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual should be safeguarded and treated in detention.

We are unable to publish data on LGBTQI detained individuals. The identification of an LGBTQI individual detained under immigration powers, is entirely at the discretion of the individual. Consequently, even a manual trawl of cases of individuals detained will not necessarily be representative of the true number of LGBTQI individuals detained during any period. The fact that an individual detained under immigration powers within an IRC or prison is transsexual will always be recorded in a manner sensitive to the needs of that individual, not for statistical purposes. As it is rare for the detention of a trans or intersex person to occur, any reporting would risk the identification of individuals.