asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether some failed asylum-seekers subject to deportation orders are being kept in immigration detention during the period in which the Home Office obtains emergency travel documents for them; if so, whether they have been detained for more than one year; and, if so, how frequently in the past year detentions of over one year have occurred. [HL3302]

Individuals, including failed asylum seekers, subject to deportation orders may be detained while the travel documentation process to facilitate their removal is taking place. It is not possible to identify separately such individuals from within the statistics on all persons detained under Immigration Act powers. This would only be possible through the examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.

Following a change in the system in which information is collected, statistics on all persons detained under sole Immigration Act powers by length of detention are not available after September 2006. Information on children has only been made available through the examination of individual cases, which would only be possible for adult detainees at disproportionate cost.

Published statistics on immigration and asylum are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate web site at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.