UK Borders Bill

My Lords, the noble Earl never ceases to be vigilant in his defence of the rights of children, and he commands enormous respect on all sides of the House for the work he does. His demand for guidelines on the length of time children can be detained and the publication of more detailed statistics on the use of detention should therefore be carefully considered. The statistics now being published quarterly are better than nothing but they give only a snapshot at the end of the quarter, and we know from debates on previous immigration legislation that when Ministers wanted the information for a particular occasion, the BIA or its predecessor had no difficulty in producing it. There seem to be indications in the latest quarterly figures that fewer children are being detained for shorter periods. If that is so, it should be that much easier to keep track of them and produce the information the noble Earl seeks. I would sooner that he had suggested it as part of the quarterly statistics rather than annually, because then if there were changes in the frequency or length of children’s detention, they would show up earlier and would allow Members to seek explanations by question or correspondence with Ministers. I also agree with the noble Earl that more precise guidance should be given to the BIA on when to detain and for how long, though I am not sure it can be pinned down in precisely the form the noble Earl requires. Listening to the Minister on Tuesday, one might have thought that the criteria for detention were already sufficiently narrow, were it not for the fact that we all know of cases where the criteria have been grossly and flagrantly violated, even when repeated appeals were made to Ministers to intervene. That is the difference between policy and practice that has been referred to so frequently in your Lordships’ discussions on the Bill. The case that always comes to my mind is that of Jacqueline Konan and her daughter Thelma, on whose behalf I begged the then Minister, Beverley Hughes, and the Immigration Service 13 times to release them, without effect. It was only when they finally got competent advice from a new firm of solicitors that not only was she released and she won her case, but she was also awarded substantial damages by the High Court for wrongful detention over the major part of her incarceration in Harmondsworth. The Minister said on Tuesday that children were detained only for a few days prior to removal with a view to making arrangements for their care by a local authority as members of a family, where it was considered likely they would abscond, or as part of the fast-track asylum process. But the fact that some children have been detained for very long periods indicates that adherence to those criteria needs to be more closely scrutinised. That is where I think we should look for better safeguards, rather than trying to attach particular numbers of days to given circumstances. There is a rule that Ministers have to approve the detention of children beyond a certain point, but they exercise that responsibility without proper parliamentary oversight. That is a gap in our armoury of protection. In his letter of 26 July, dealing with matters raised in the fifth Grand Committee sitting, the noble Lord said that from March 2004 to July 2007 Ministers had declined to approve continued detention beyond 28 days in 14 cases only. If Ministers were obliged to place anonymised copies of their decisions to approve continued detention beyond the 28 days in the Libraries of both Houses, with a note on the reasons for their decisions in each case, we would be able to evaluate the process and assure ourselves not only that the declared purposes of children’s detention were being strictly observed but that, wherever possible, alternative arrangements were being made.