§ Lord Evans of Watfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to amend the Immigration (Places of Detention) Direction 1996. [HL3975]
§ Lord Williams of MostynThe Immigration (Places of Detention) Direction has been amended and copies have been placed in the Library.
It was necessary to amend the direction in order to:
- enable detention, where facilities have been specifically provided, at immigration offices which are not at ports of entry. This will allow our proposals for a new reporting centre at Becket House to be implemented in October of this year, when it is expected to be ready for operation;
- delete the "out of date" reference to Meadvale detention centre, which is no longer in operation; and
- amend reference to a "place of safety" in a Northern Ireland context to take account of the observations of the Legislative Counsel in Northern Ireland.