HC Deb 15 July 2003 vol 409 c276W
Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 25 June 2003,Official Report, column 866W on immigration holding cells, which independent bodies are responsible for inspecting the police and immigration facilities listed; and when the last inspection took place in each case. [124983]

Beverley Hughes

Independent custody visiting is the new name for lay visiting, the well established system where volunteers attend police stations to check on the treatment of detainees and the conditions in which they are held. Unannounced visits are made at varying times of the day and night, with volunteers having immediate access to the custody area. Heathrow and Stansted police stations were visited most recently on 14 and 25 June, respectively.

Immigration holding rooms at ports are not at present subject to independent oversight. However, we have very recently invited Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, which performs a similar role in relation to immigration removal centres, to take on an inspection function for immigration short-term holding facilities, including holding rooms at ports, and we will be discussing with them the arrangements by which they might do so.

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