PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Migrants: Detainees (8 September 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the maximum time spent in a detention centre for the purpose of immigration control by (a) women and (b) men in each category of detainee was in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Steve Barclay (Conservative)

Published figures on people detained in the United Kingdom solely under Immigration Act powers include those held in short term holding facilities, pre departure accommodation and immigration removal centres. Figures exclude those held in police cells, Prison Service establishments, short term holding rooms at ports and airports (for less than 24 hours), and those recorded as detained under both criminal and immigration powers and their dependants. The period of detention starts when a person first enters the Home Office detention estate.
If the person is then moved from a removal centre to a police cell or Prison Service establishment, this period of stay will be included if the detention is solely under Immigration Act powers.
The table below shows the longest length of detention (in days) as at the last day of each year, by gender, for people in detention, for the last five years.

Longest length of detention, by sex, in days
	Female	Male
as at the last day of 2009	852	1,520
as at the last day of 2010	1,093	1,885
as at the last day of 2011	751	2,250
as at the last day of 2012	1,117	1,620
as at the last day of 2013	649	1,428

The Home Office publishes quarterly and annual statistics on the number of people detained in the United Kingdom for immigration purposes, within Immigration Statistics: April – June 2014, from the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release.

Answered by:
James Brokenshire (Conservative)
17 September 2014