Oral answer to question provided on Wednesday, 15 February 2006 in the House of Lords, by Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour).

Immigration Detention Centres

Answer: My Lords, I appreciate entirely the noble Lord’s concern. I am as concerned as he is, and no doubt the Immigration Service is as well. We do our best to ensure that such cases are brought forward in an expedient and timely fashion, but I will go back and review the periods to which the noble Lord has drawn attention. I agree that we require that all of the cases take the shortest period possible, as that would be to everyone’s satisfaction.

This is an answer to the Oral question asked on Wednesday, 15 February 2006 by Lord Dubs (Labour).

Question: My Lords, perhaps I can press my noble friend further on the time delays that he talked about. He will appreciate that we are limited in the questions that we can ask about anything that is coming before a coroners’ court, for reasons to do with the Companion. However, perhaps he can answer this question: why does it take three years before a coroners’ court can deal with a matter in which an individual has been found hanging and is dead in an immigration centre? Surely even the most thorough scrutiny of the matter by the coroners’ court does not take three years.

Secondary information