Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether any children under the age of 18 are currently detained in Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre; and whether any children under the age of 18 have been detained in that centre in the last (a) week, (b) month and (c) year.

Prior to arrival at an immigration removal centre (IRC) all detained persons will have been assessed as over the age of 18 and deemed suitable for detention. In some cases, individuals who are detained subsequently claim to be children. Our contracted service providers follow published guidance - Detention Services Order 02/2019 - on managing those who claim to be under the age of 18 after entering detention, to safeguard and promote their welfare.

The Home Office publishes statistics on people entering, in and leaving immigration detention in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. The number of people entering and in detention each quarter are in tables Det_D01 and Det_D02 of the ‘Detention detailed datasets’, where the data can be broken down by age and first place of detention or current place of detention. The number of people leaving detention each quarter are in table Det_D03 of the same datasets, where the data can be broken down by age. The latest data relates to the end of March 2023.

The Home Office takes the welfare and safety of people in its care very seriously and is focused on providing decent, safe and secure accommodation in all immigration removal centres. Independent scrutiny is a vital part of assurance that detention facilities are safe, secure, and humane. Robust statutory oversight is provided by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Independent Monitoring Boards, ensuring that detained individuals are treated with proper standards of care and decency.