Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy on immigration detention of the 17 March 2020 report by Professor Richard Coker on the risk of infection from covid-19 to (a) vulnerable women asylum seekers and (b) other detainees.

There are currently no cases of COVID-19 in immigration removal centres.

The safety and health of people in the detention and asylum estates is of the utmost importance. The Home Office has robust contingency plans in place and continues to follow national guidance issued by Public Health England (PHE), Health Protection Scotland and the National Health Service, including the interim advice on preventing and controlling outbreaks of Covid-19 in prisons and other prescribed places of detention, which was first published on 16 March.

In addition, all immigration removal centres have communicable disease contingency plans, based on PHE advice, and dedicated health facilities run by doctors and nurses which are managed by the NHS or appropriate providers. All receptions into detention receive an assessment within two hours by a nurse and can see a doctor within 24 hours.

Anybody who is destitute and has an outstanding asylum claim or appeal against a refusal to grant asylum can apply for support and accommodation, including those who are being released from detention. The Home Office is working closely with colleagues in Public Health England as well as with accommodation providers to ensure we have appropriate arrangements in place for anybody leaving detention who is receiving asylum support and/or living in asylum accommodation and who is required to self-isolate and providing them with advice and guidance via our AIRE Provider, Migrant Help.

Additionally the Secretary of State may provide accommodation and support for a foreign national offender who is subject to a residency condition and are either considered to pose a high risk or harm to the public or be suffering from a serious physical or mental health problem.