§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Why immigration detainees who have not been charged with or committed any criminal offence are still being held in prison. [HL760]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Filkin)Our policy on the use of prison accommodation to hold immigration detainees was set out in our White PaperSecure Borders, Safe Haven—Integration with Diversity in Modern Britain. We made it clear that, although the routine use of prison accommodation for immigration detainees had ended at the start of 2002, there would remain a need to hold small numbers of individual detainees in prison for reasons of security and control. There has been no change in that policy.