To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many individuals have been held in detention under the Immigration Act 1971 in each year since 1990; and how many were attempting to enter the United Kingdom as students, visitors and asylum seekers;(2) how many individuals were held in detention
(a) on arrival in the United Kingdom and (b) after arrival in each year since 1990.
The available information is given in the table; the statistics do not identify the basis on which the person sought entry to the United Kingdom.
| 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | |
| Passengers detained overnight or longer on arrival | 9,007 | 8,016 | 6,918 |
| Persons detained overnight or longer after entry1 | 3,607 | 4,578 | 4,666 |
| 1People dealt with under deportation powers. | |||
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals seeking asylum were (a) held in detention centres and (b) detained in prison or police stations in each year since 1990.
Asylum seekers are not identified separately in the statistics on total persons detained under the Immigration Act 1971. The only readily available information is of the number of asylum seekers who had been detained for more than a month at the points of time given in the table.
| Asylum applicants1detained for more than one month at certain points of time, by place of detention. | |||
| 26 April 1991 | 3 April 1992 | 19 May 1993 | |
| Harmondsworth | 33 | 42 | 66 |
| Haslar | 36 | 37 | 81 |
| Her Majesty's Prisons2 | 51 | 48 | 137 |
| Total | 120 | 127 | 284 |
| 1 Persons detained solely under the powers contained in Schedules 2 or 3 of the Immigration Act 1971. In some cases the asylum application will have been lodged subsequent to the applicant being detained. The figures include both detained asylum applicants who applied at ports, and those detained in after-entry enforcement work. For the latter, the figures exclude persons whose asylum application was refused and who remained in detention pending removal. | |||
| 2 No such cases were held in police stations. | |||
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans there are to increase the number of detention centres for those held under the Immigration Act 1971.
Work started in March on the redevelopment of a vacant Prison Service establishment at Campsfield house, Kidlington, near Oxford, to provide up to 200 additional places for immigration detainees.
Further possible options, including the creation of additional facilities close to Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, are under consideration, but no final decision has yet been taken.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what were the costs in each year since 1990 of running detention centres for those held under the Immigration Act 1971; and what are the projected costs for 1994 and 1995.
Immigration detention centres are managed under contract, and the costs involved are not disclosed on grounds of commercial confidentiality.