Last Thursday the three questions that Caroline Lucas had raised for Asylum Detainees were responded to by Robert Jenrick. Here are the questions and the responses and it seems very clear that the answers are not sufficient or direct to the questions. The first question had a seperate response and the second and third questions were responded with one answer. Here is the first:

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) victims of (i) trafficking and (ii) torture and (b) people with other special reception needs were detained by each special reception need in 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes information on the number of individuals who claim to be victims of torture, or who have other medical concerns, quarterly as part of transparency data. The latest figures can be found on gov.uk at Immigration Enforcement data: Q3 2022 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The Home Office does not publish statistics on the number of detained individuals that have been found to be victims of torture or modern slavery; and this could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

And here are the other two questions and the one answer:

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department,

how many asylum applicants were detained by the UK (a) in 2022 and (b) as of 31 December 2022, (i) in total and (ii) broken down by grounds for detention.

what the average duration of detention was for detained (a) migrants and (b) asylum applicants in 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on people in detention on the last day of each quarter in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’, as well as data on people entering and leaving detention during each quarter. The latest data relate to the end of September 2022.

Data on asylum-related detentions are published in table Det_01 of the ‘Detention summary tables’ and are broken down by the year of people entering and leaving and by the number of people in detention at the end of the period.

The publishes statistics do not include information on grounds for detention.

Data on how long people were detained for when leaving detention are published in table Det_D03 of the ‘Detention detailed tables’ and are broken down by year and length of detention group. The published data are not broken down by asylum/non-asylum.

Figures on detention at the end of December 2022 will be published on 23 February 2023.

There is clearly an opportunity to thank Caroline for asking the questions and to connect to our local MPs (including Caroline) for the need for more effective answers to emerge from the Government.