Andy Sawford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Sawford on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Immigration Removal Centre detainees have (a) escaped from detention, (b) escaped whilst being escorted and (c) attempted to escape each IRC in the last four years; and how many such people are still at large.

Karen Bradley

Escapes from immigration removal centres and while under escort are a subset of
published statistics. The following table shows absconds for the financial
years 2010/11-2013/14.

Information on attempted escapes is not held centrally and could only be
provided by examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.

Eleven of those individuals recorded as escaped 2010/11-2013/14 have not been
located.

The police are informed immediately when a detainee has escaped and the
individual’s details are recorded on the Police National Computer should the
individual be apprehended at a later date.

People leaving detention by place of last detention, absconded 2010/11-2013/14 (financial year) (1)(2).

(1) Data from 2011/12 onwards are provisional.

(2) Total detainees are those detained in the United Kingdom solely under Immigration Act powers and exclude those in police cells, Prison Service establishments, short term holding rooms at ports and airports (for less than 24 hours), and those recorded as detained under both criminal and immigration powers and their dependants.