(The Minister of State for
Immigration): On 24 July 2018, the Home Secretary
laid before Parliament the second independent review by Stephen
Shaw CBE, into immigration detention. In responding to that
review, the Home Secretary committed to going further and faster
with the reforms to immigration detention in four priority areas:
encouraging and supporting voluntary returns; improving the
support available to vulnerable detainees; increasing
transparency around immigration detention; and a new drive on
dignity in detention.
As a part of this commitment, the Home Secretary, in agreement
with the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice,
announced plans to pilot an additional automatic bail referral to
the First-tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber at
the two-month point; halving the time in detention before a first
bail referral.
I am pleased to announce that this pilot will commence on 10
February. It will run for six months and will be evaluated fully.
This is an important additional safeguard for those who are
detained, giving them certainty that their detention is subject
to further independent judicial oversight. It builds on the
current automatic bail referral regime at the four-month point
which was introduced last year. I have written to the Chairs of
the Home Affairs Select Committee and the Joint Committee of
Human Rights with more detail on the pilot and I will place
copies of those letters in the Libraries of the House.
Together with the Ministry of Justice, we will consider the key
outcomes of the pilot, as part of our continued efforts to ensure
we have a detention system that is fair to those who may be
detained, upholds our immigration policies and acts as a
deterrent to those who might seek to frustrate immigration
control.
