Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women in Derwentside Immigration Removal Centre have been provided advice via a Detained Duty Advice Scheme surgery between (a) 28 December 2021 and 30 June 2022 and (b) since 1 July 2022; and what proportion of those women have been provided with advice via an in-person surgery.

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.

From Monday 3 April 2023 all DDAS appointments will be facilitated in-person.

Individuals detained in IRCs can also access privately commissioned legal advice, including legally aided advice provided through means other than the DDAS.

Data on the number of women who have signed up via the legal help scheme following a DDAS surgery, and the proportion of those women who had further in-person appointments with a firm on the DDAS rota following an advice surgery, is not held centrally and therefore cannot be provided.