Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2022 to Question 77331 on Detention Centres: Manston, what (a) qualifies as an exceptional circumstance and (b) is the maximum period of time she can extend the detention of a person in a holding room for.

As set out in the published guidance on the Short-Term Holding Facility Rules 2018, it is not possible to give an exhaustive definition of exceptional circumstances. These would be circumstances which the Secretary of State (or those exercising the decision on her behalf) reasonably considers to be exceptional.

No maximum extension period is set out in the Short-Term Holding Facility Rules 2018, or guidance.