§ Mr. Leeasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases have occurred during the last 12 months in the Birmingham district council area of persons detained as suspected illegal immigrants but subsequently found not to be so and released; in how many such instances compensatory payments have been paid, either as a result of damages awarded as a result of legal 197W proceedings or ex gratia; how many persons so detained received letters of apology; and how many such persons received neither damages nor apology.
§ Mr. JohnThe information requested in the first part of the Question is not separately available from central records, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Detention is authorised only after interview and where there are substantial reasons for concluding that a person entered illegally.
As to compensation, I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to a Question by him on 30th June—[Vol. 952, c. 707]—and as I said on that occasion, the information he has sought in the last part of his Question is not separately available.