Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of women's experiences of violence and abuse in the asylum system.

There is detailed published guidance for all staff working in Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs). Detention Services Order (DSO) 06/2016 'Women in the immigration removal estate' sets out the processes that are undertaken in IRCs to ensure that the needs of women are identified and appropriately met and their rights to dignity and privacy are upheld. In addition, DSO 09/2012 ‘Searching Policy’ sets out the requirements for searching women in detention, providing clear guidance that women must only be searched by members of the same sex.

All staff working with women receive appropriate gender specific training (such as the protocol for entry to bedrooms), in addition to any generic training they receive when they undergo initial training or undertake appropriate refresher training. This includes equality and diversity, human trafficking and modern slavery.

The constant supervision of women who are subject to an Assessment Care in Detention and Teamwork (ACDT) plan, should wherever possible, be undertaken by a female detainee custody officer (DCO). In the unlikely event that this is not operationally possible for reasons of safety and security, the details for this decision must be fully documented by the duty manager on the ACDT plan.