Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been detained in immigration removal centres in Scotland in each year since 2006; and what the capacity of such centres was in each of those years.

Dungavel House in Strathaven, Lanarkshire is the sole immigration removal centre (IRC) located in Scotland.

The table below shows the number of people entering detention solely under Immigration Act powers at Dungavel House IRC from 2009 to 2014:

Year Detainees

2009 1,661

2010 1,432

2011 1,481

2012 1,431

2013 1,626

2014 1,297

Some detainees may be recorded more than once if, for example, the person has been detained on more than one occasion in the time period shown, such as a person who has left detention, but has subsequently been re-detained. Information on people entering detention prior to 2009 is unavailable.

The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of people detained in the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within the Immigration Statistics release. Data relating to people entering detention are available in tables dt_01 and dt_01_q in Immigration Statistics: January – March 2015 on the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release and which will be placed in the Library of the House. Occupancy statistics were not collected by the Home Office before 2009 and figures prior to this are unavailable.

The following table shows the capacity of Dungavel House IRC from 2006 to 2015:

Year Capacity

2006 188

2007 188

2008 188

2009 190

2010 217

2011 217

2012 217

2013 217

2014 249

2015 249

The information provided in relation to capacity 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.