I am very grateful to the noble Baroness for asking me that question, because it allows me to point out that, under the present law—under Schedule 2 to the 1971 Act and the case law on Hardial Singh—there is no limit. On the same basis, it is now codified in the Bill. The power to detain is exactly the same, save for this change from an objective test of reasonableness to reasonableness in the view of the Home Secretary, governed by the other provisions in the Bill. It is impossible to set a time limit, as I was invited to by the noble Lord, Lord Coaker. Although the noble Baroness suggests that there should be a time limit, that is simply not the way that the law has evolved in this area following Hardial Singh—there is no upper limit.
The court will evaluate and, obviously, a time would logically come when somebody had been detained for a long period and the court could not form a view that that period was reasonably necessary, for example, to
enable the examination or removal to be carried out. It is a fact-sensitive decision in relation to the duration of detention.
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