Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 20 November 2008 to the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton, Official Report, column 748W, on Diego Garcia: detainees, for how many years the US detention facility was open; and for what reasons the US detention facility was decommissioned.

The US have informed us that holding cells were used to house US military personnel in accordance with the United States Uniform Code of Military Justice. The US has confirmed that it built these in 1984 and decommissioned them in 2007. UK authorities do not hold information as to the reasons for the US decision to decommission their holding cells.