Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women held in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre were on constant observation to prevent self-harm in each year since 2010.

Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork (ACDT) is the system used for monitoring people considered to be at risk of self harm and operates within the broader context of decency, safety, and the concept of a healthy centre.

The table below provides the number of women in Yarl’s Wood who were placed on constant observation to prevent self harm for the financial years 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 1 April to 30 June 2014.

The information is based on management information only and has not been subject to the detailed checks that apply for National Statistics publications. These figures are provisional and are subject to change.

Financial Year

2012/2013 2013/2014 1 April – 30 June 2014
Number of women on constant observations to prevent self harm

168 164 36

Data on the numbers of women placed on constant observation to prevent self harm prior to 2012 is not recorded electronically and cannot be provided without examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.

Provisionally 2,464 women entered detention at Yarl’s Wood IRC in 2012/2013, 2,004 in 2013/2014 and 481 between 1 April and 30 June 2014. Source Immigration Statistics:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

This figure does not include women who transferred from other parts of the detention estate or returned to the estate from prisons. It may include women who have been detained on more than one separate occasion in the time period shown, such as a person who has left detention, but has subsequently been re-detained.