Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the finding of the Review into the Welfare in Detention of Vulnerable Persons, A report to the Home Office by Stephen Shaw, published in January 2016, paragraph 12, that rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules does not protect vulnerable people who find themselves in detention.

The Government has carefully considered the recommendations made by Stephen Shaw in his review report, and has taken these into account in introducing revised guidance and its new policy on adults at risk in immigration detention. Revised guidance on Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001 was published on 12 September 2016. It will support improved reporting quality by doctors working in immigration removal centres and improved consideration by Home Office caseworkers of those reports. The adults at risk policy, which also came into force on 12 September, strikes the right balance between protecting vulnerable individuals and maintaining effective and proportionate immigration control.