Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are (a) being held in immigration detention centres and (b) required to report to her Department for immigration enforcement purposes; what steps her Department are taking to help protect those people from covid-19; and if she will make a statement.

The Home Office publishes data on people in detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’ (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release). Data on the number of people detained under immigration powers at the end of each quarter, by location are published in table Det_D02 of the immigration detention detailed datasets (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/returns-and-detention-datasets#immigration-detention).

Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the 'summary tables' (attached). The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on detention.

A statistical report Statistics relating to Covid-19 and the immigration system, May 2020 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-relating-to-covid-19-and-the-immigration-system-may-2020), released on 28 May 2020 provides further high-level information relating to immigration detention and Covid-19 up to the end of April.

Figures covering the second quarter of 2020, including those detained as at 30 June 2020 will be released on 27 August 2020. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’ (https://www.gov.uk/search/research-and-statistics?content_store_document_type=upcoming_statistics&organisations%5B%5D=home-office&order=release-date-oldest).

The decision to pause face to face reporting came into effect 23 March 2020. Since closing to the public, we have embarked on a programme of contact with those required to report using telephone, SMS and email. As lockdown measures start to ease, reporting centres will begin to open with social distancing and other appropriate measures in line with Pubic Health England (PHE) guidance to keep those that we require to report safe.

The safety and health of people in the detention estate are of the utmost importance. We are following all PHE guidance and have robust contingency plans in place. Further guidance on managing COVID-19 in immigration removal centres was published on gov.uk on 5 June https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-immigration-removal-centres.

As of 17 June 2020, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in immigration removal centres.