PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre (25 October 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women resident in Yarlswood Detention Centre in the last 12 months have disclosed prior history of sexual violence; and how many such women remain in detention.

Asked by:
Ms Stella Creasy (Labour)

All new cases entering detention are screened and approved for detention by a detention gate keeping team working across all immigration commands.

This will ensure that detention criteria are applied consistently across the entire estate. The gate keeping team applies the new adults at risk in detention policy, which was implemented on 12 September 2016. The adult at risk policy includes sexual and gender based violence as an indicator of being at risk. Individuals regarded as being at risk will be detained only when the immigration factors in the case outweigh the risk considerations.

If an issue (such as sexual violence) emerges once an individual has been detained (from a doctor in the context of a report under Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules 2001, or in another context), the case will be reviewed to establish whether, in the light of the new information, detention is still appropriate.

Information on the number of women who have disclosed a prior history of sexual violence as part of their immigration case is not readily accessible from central statistical records and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost through a manual search of individual case files.

Answered by:
Sir Robert Goodwill (Conservative)
3 November 2016